New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Defending a 137-day hiatus in fuel price revisions on Tuesday, it said the resulting rise in global oil prices due to supply chain disruptions and the war in Ukraine was a “few weeks” phenomenon that resulted in record increases in petrol and diesel in the past. Prices in 8 days.
International oil prices began to rise a few days before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The basket of crude oil bought by India averaged $100.71 a barrel on the day when state-owned fuel retailers pressed the pause button daily, compared to $82 in early November 2021. Price revision before assembly elections in five states
On March 9, international prices touched $140 per barrel ($128.24 for the Indian basket of crude oil), while fuel retailers resumed daily price revisions on March 22.
Replying to a debate on the 2022-23 budget in the Rajya Sabha, he said that the opposition members had said that the war in Ukraine was going on for a long time and now fuel prices are being raised.
“Absolutely untrue,” she said. “The disruption in the global oil price and the resultant growth and supply disruption has also been happening for a few weeks now and we are responding to that.”
Petrol and diesel prices have been hiked by Rs 4.80 per liter since March 22 – a record increase in any eight days since the daily price revision was implemented in June 2017.
Sitharaman said that the government is taking several steps in response to the rise in global oil prices.
He blamed the UPA government for issuing bonds more than a decade ago to oil companies to make up for the losses they incurred for selling autos and cooking fuel at below cost.
“Today’s taxpayers are paying for subsidies given to consumers more than a decade ago in the name of oil bonds. And they will continue to pay for the next five years as bond redemptions continue until 2026,” he added. Said happened. Price Rs 2 lakh crore.
On the opposition party’s claim that the BJP government had issued oil bonds for the first time between 1999 and 2004, he said the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had issued bonds worth Rs 9,000 crore as compared to Rs 2 lakh crore by the UPA.
International oil prices were below US$30 a barrel during the Vajpayee government, while they reached a record high of US$147 under the UPA, which required high subsidy support in the form of oil bonds.
He said the oil bonds issued by the Vajpayee government were “a continuous policy (like the UPA) rather than a one-time action.”
“There is a huge difference in magnitude between Rs 9,000 crore, which once had to be repaid on account of the Vajpayee government’s oil bonds, and over Rs 2 lakh crore which was raised during the UPA, which is still to be paid,” he said. has been,” she said. said.
“There is an honest way to give oil at a higher price and one way is that you book it on someone else and some other government keeps paying for it. We haven’t done that,” he said.
While the war in Ukraine posed new challenges in the form of high international oil prices and supply chain disruptions, he said inflation has been kept under control.
International oil prices began to rise a few days before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The basket of crude oil bought by India averaged $100.71 a barrel on the day when state-owned fuel retailers pressed the pause button daily, compared to $82 in early November 2021. Price revision before assembly elections in five states
On March 9, international prices touched $140 per barrel ($128.24 for the Indian basket of crude oil), while fuel retailers resumed daily price revisions on March 22.
Replying to a debate on the 2022-23 budget in the Rajya Sabha, he said that the opposition members had said that the war in Ukraine was going on for a long time and now fuel prices are being raised.
“Absolutely untrue,” she said. “The disruption in the global oil price and the resultant growth and supply disruption has also been happening for a few weeks now and we are responding to that.”
Petrol and diesel prices have been hiked by Rs 4.80 per liter since March 22 – a record increase in any eight days since the daily price revision was implemented in June 2017.
Sitharaman said that the government is taking several steps in response to the rise in global oil prices.
He blamed the UPA government for issuing bonds more than a decade ago to oil companies to make up for the losses they incurred for selling autos and cooking fuel at below cost.
“Today’s taxpayers are paying for subsidies given to consumers more than a decade ago in the name of oil bonds. And they will continue to pay for the next five years as bond redemptions continue until 2026,” he added. Said happened. Price Rs 2 lakh crore.
On the opposition party’s claim that the BJP government had issued oil bonds for the first time between 1999 and 2004, he said the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had issued bonds worth Rs 9,000 crore as compared to Rs 2 lakh crore by the UPA.
International oil prices were below US$30 a barrel during the Vajpayee government, while they reached a record high of US$147 under the UPA, which required high subsidy support in the form of oil bonds.
He said the oil bonds issued by the Vajpayee government were “a continuous policy (like the UPA) rather than a one-time action.”
“There is a huge difference in magnitude between Rs 9,000 crore, which once had to be repaid on account of the Vajpayee government’s oil bonds, and over Rs 2 lakh crore which was raised during the UPA, which is still to be paid,” he said. has been,” she said. said.
“There is an honest way to give oil at a higher price and one way is that you book it on someone else and some other government keeps paying for it. We haven’t done that,” he said.
While the war in Ukraine posed new challenges in the form of high international oil prices and supply chain disruptions, he said inflation has been kept under control.