Harish Rawat takes a jibe at centre, calls LPG price hike a 'courageous step'

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and Congress leader Harish Rawat on Friday took a dig at the Central government over the LPG price hike and said that no government in the history of the country has displayed such courage. Rawat also took to his official Twitter handle and made a sarcastic remark by stating that the centre has taken many courageous steps. 

Rawat's tweet roughly translates as "Centre has taken many courageous steps. You may like to congratulate the government. No government in the history of the country has displayed so much courage to increase the price of LPG cylinder by Rs 149 in one on go."

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Meanwhile, ever since the price hike, the opposition has been demanding the government to roll back the price hike. Earlier on Thursday, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had informed that there is a sharp increase in the international price of LPG during January, the impact of which has been borne by the government by increasing the subsidy for the subsidised cylinders and Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) consumers.

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas also issued a release and stated that the LPG price is derived based on the international market price for the previous month. According to the release, the LPG price for cooking gas for consumers under PAHAL (Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG) is subsidised by the Union Government.

"Today the national LPG coverage is about 97 percent with more than 27.76 crore connections. Therefore, out of the about 27.76 crore consumers, in respect of about 26.12 crore consumers the increase in price is borne by the government," the release said.

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Hike in Gas Prices

The LPG prices on Wednesday saw a hike by a steep Rs 144.5 per cylinder due to spurt in benchmark global rates of the fuel. However, the government has almost doubled the subsidy it provides on the fuel to keep per cylinder outgo almost unchanged. The LPG price was increased to Rs 858.50 per 14.2 kg cylinder from Rs 714, according to a price notification of state-owned oil firms. This is the steepest hike in rates since January 2014 when prices had gone up by Rs 220 per cylinder to Rs 1,241. Along with it, the domestic LPG users, who are entitled to buy 12 bottles of 14.2-kg each at subsidised rates in a year, will get more subsidy. 

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(With inputs from ANI)