Jayalalithaa blames UPA's 'wrong' economic policies for price rise

CHENNAI: Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today blamed the "wrong economic policies" of the UPA Government for price rise and sought scrapping of existing system of Trade Parity Price for petroleum fuel.

Holding that prices of petrol and diesel were being fixed as per international trends, she said, "I wish to point out that this system is wrong."

The Trade Parity Price is arrived based on the calculation of Import Parity Price and Export Parity Price of fuel and then their price for the Indian market is fixed, she told the Assembly.

Therefore, the lower rates in which petrol and diesel are sold is defined as 'under-recovery' and not as losses, she said.

"This system should be cancelled. The pricing should be determined based on price of imported crude and the cost of its refining, costs involved in refining domestic crude besides the foreign exchange reserves. If done so, petrol and diesel will be available at cheaper rates," she said.

This would also keep the prices of essential commodities under check, she added.

"Therefore, I wish to point out that the reason for increase in price-rise is due to wrong economic policies of the Central government," she said.

The claims of oil companies about their incurring of losses were not true as their "annual accounts show they earn profit. Their shares also trade well," she added.

She said the decision to deregulate diesel price was taken at the Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs in which DMK leader and Union Fertilizer Minister M K Alagiri was a member.

While he had not opposed the proposal there, party chief M Karunanidhi was making statements demanding rollback "only for the sake of doing so," Jayalalithaa charged.