Govt searching for consensus on price hike

Decision on fuel price hike unlikely till Thursday

"There is no consensus within the UPA. It (government) is buying time and a decision may not be taken before day after tomorrow," a source familiar with the highest level of thinking in the government said here.     

Earlier today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought a wider political consensus on fuel prices, saying the country cannot allow the subsidy bill to balloon further.     

His call for unanimity in thinking comes in the backdrop of opposition from Left parties, which props up the UPA from the outside, to any move to raise petrol,  diesel and other domestic fuel prices.     

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, till last week were losing about Rs 580 crore per day on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and PDS kerosene, are incurring a revenue loss of close to Rs 650 crore from June 1, industry sources said.     

Government spent most of its time last fortnight in consultations including at the highest level to combat the projected Rs 2,25,040 crore revenue loss on fuel sales. But with inflation climbing to 45-month high of 8.1 per cent, the several rounds of discussions at the level of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi have yielded no decision.