Ignoring the opposition from allies Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party, the Manmohan Singh government on Thursday decided to raise diesel prices by no less than `5 per litre with effect from Thursday midnight.
It also restricted the supply of subsidised cooking gas to six cylinders per household in a year.
The diesel price rise is excluding value-added tax, oil ministry sources said.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went ahead with the hike that was jointly pushed by oil & petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy and finance minister P Chidambaram.
The last CCPA meeting, which was to take up the same issue, was called off after Trinamoool Congress leader and railway minister Mukul Roy came prepared to thwart the move.
Roy was absent from the CCPA meeting on Thursday, giving ample scope to his party boss and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to act surprised.
“I am really shocked by the decision. The government did not consult us before hiking the price. It was not discussed in the UPA coordination committee meeting,” Banerjee said in Kolkata.
The government, however, chose not to hike the prices of petrol and kerosene. But in the other major decision, the government capped subsidised LGP to six cylinders per household per year. Anything above the cap would cost the market rates. However, it is not clear how the government plans to implement this policy.
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