Chidambaram For Consensus On Raising Oil Price

Finance minister P Chidambaram yesterday said that a political consensus needed to be built before further raising prices of petroleum products.

Participating in a debate in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, the finance minister justified his approach of not taking any decision about the hike. No finance minister has announced a hike in the prices of petroleum products in his budget speech, was Chidambarams justification.

He, however, said that it was upto the petroleum minister and the Prime Minister to decide on the issue now. He added that before taking any decision a consensus on the issues must be arrived at.

The finance minister said that the prices of petroleum products remained uncorrected for two and half years till July 1996 when some correction was made. But the situation in the international market unfolded in such a way that people started thinking about another correction, he said.

At one time the price of petrol went upto to $24 in the international market, he said. This was one of the reasons for the burgeoining deficit in the oil pool account.