Rare Praise

Aug 5 (PTI) The Opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) received a rare compliment from Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on 5th August when he praised the BJP-led front for its decision to deregulate petroleum prices during its six-year rule. "And I must thank the NDA government, who came to power in 1998 and who took this decision (to free the pricing)," Mukherjee said while replying to a debate on the inflationary pressure on the economy.
Mukherjee said the NDA government's pricing policy, which was later discontinued, helped the country to increase its refining capacity.
The BJP-led NDA government had in 2002 freed petrol and diesel prices, resulting in a revision in rates on the 1st and 16th of every month. The deregulation that began from April 1, 2002, was discontinued in January, 2004, on the eve of the General Election. The deregulation was done as per a roadmap decided in 1998. All other petroleum products other than petrol, diesel, domestic LPG, kerosene and ATF were deregulated in 1998. ATF was deregulated in 2002 and continues to be free from government interference. "With the change of the pricing policy implemented between 1998 and 2002, there has been a boom in investments in the refining sector from about 62 million metric tonnes per year in 1998 to refining capacity today going up to 183 million metric tonnes per year and is expected to reach 255 million metric tonnes per year by 2012," he said.
The Finance Minister said the NDA government's decision brought a vibrancy to the petroleum sector. "It was a correct decision to change the import parity concession to bring the better income, which brought our refineries dynamic expertise and they are (now) working in a competitive mood to the world," Mukherjee said. The Congress-led UPA Government in June this year again deregulated the prices of petrol.