Govt repays Mamata’s debt, partially rolls back oil hike

Prime Minister Vajpayee announced the decision at the meeting of alliance partners held at his official residence this evening. Banerjee, who along with her colleague Ajit Panja, even tendered her resignation from the union council of ministers in protest against the hikes, was also present in the meeting.

The coordination committee meeting, which was attended by representatives of all alliance partners, also saw the Prime Minister expressing the government’s resolve to have another go at the controversial women’s reservation bill. “Home Minister L.K. Advani has been entrusted with the task of interacting with all the parties in Parliament so that they are able to ensure the smooth conduct of the House in the passage of the bill during the ensuing session,” NDA convenor George Fernandes told newspersons after the meeting.

The bill, which seeks to reserve 33 per cent of seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women, has in the past evoked strong protests from the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. The BJP and the Congress too are riddled with dissension on the issue.

The meeting of NDA partners also discussed the situation arising out of the Union cabinet’s decision to reduce the government’s equity in public sector banks. In response to queries raised by partners such as the PMK, DMK and the Trinamool Congress, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha denied that the government was in any way trying to privatise these banks.

“The government has decided that it’ll reduce its equity in the 19 public sector banks to 33 per cent not by offloading its shares but by increasing its equity base,” Fernandes later told newspersons, “The cabinet has already declared that it no one will be allowed to buy more than one per cent equity.”

But the government’s assertion is not likely to cut any ice with the opposition parties, which have already announced their determination to oppose the bill when it is tabled during the winter session.

The government had, in order to bridge the burgeoning oil pool deficit, decided in August this year to increase the prices of LPG by Rs 40 per cylinder and that of kerosene by Rs 3 per litre. Taken together with the hikes in the prices of petrol and diesel, the measure would have left the government still grappling with a deficit of Rs 23,600 crore in its oil pool account by the end of the current financial year.

After today’s partial rollback, the figure is likely to go up to Rs 24,156 crore. “The oil pool deficit will go up by Rs 139 crore per month as a result of today’s decision,” Fernandes said.

Asked whether the Trinamool Congress chief was satified with the quantum of rollback, the NDA convenor merely said that Mamata was aware of the size of the problem. “In fact, between August-end, when the hikes were announced, and today, international prices of crude have shot up further by $5 per barrel,” Fernandes pointed out.