Protesting against petrol price hike, CPI(M) supporters block NH-5 in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

New Delhi, May 24: Faced with howls of protest from every corner, the Congress has expressed hope that the government would find a way of easing some of the petrol price hike’s burden on the common man.

However, unlike previous occasions, the party has neither voiced unhappiness nor demanded a partial rollback.

A few Congress leaders may be making some noise about a rollback and shedding tears over the burden on the people, but in private they concede the necessity for the hike.

They have been recalling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s comments, made in Sonia Gandhi’s presence at the UPA II anniversary dinner this week, in favour of synergy between the government and the party on major economic issues.

“Difficult decisions have to be taken on both spending and revenue mobilisation,” Singh had added.

Although some senior Congress leaders have chosen to give the impression that the party is deeply disturbed by the sharp hike and that the government did not consult Sonia beforehand, the official reaction has been mild and measured.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari merely said the party was sensitive to the people’s miseries, and then rationalised the hike by citing the volatile international market and the abnormal pressures on the rupee. He, however, hoped that the Centre and the states would take measures to ease the burden.

Although there is a buzz about a rollback of Rs 2 to Rs 3, no government source or party leader confirmed it. Congress-ruled states such as Kerala and Uttarakhand have cut down taxes to bring the prices down by around Rs 2.

The Congress, though, understands that such unpopular decisions can imply a heavy political cost. Many party leaders regretted that neither the allies nor the media seemed ready for a dispassionate debate on the mechanism for pricing petroleum products and the merits of subsidies.

Amid the political grandstanding, oil companies indicated today that petrol prices may be cut by Rs 1.50-1.80 early next month if the current trend of softening in international oil prices continues.

Worried over the political backlash, the government fielded chief executives of the state-owned oil companies to explain the compulsions that led to the increase in petrol price, the third in a year but the first in almost seven months.

“Current trend (in international prices) indicates that prices (of petrol) can come down,” IOC chairman R.S. Butola told reporters here.

Although the allies are angry at the hike, mainly because it would be difficult to convince lay citizens of its economic logic, government sources dismissed reports that claimed the ministers from the allies had boycotted today's cabinet meeting.

Ministers from the DMK, NCP and Trinamul Congress indeed skipped the meeting, but the government sources said there had been no boycott or politics behind their absence.While the NCP’s Sharad Pawar is in the Netherlands, Praful Patel was in Mumbai. Trinamul’s Mukul Roy had already informed the government he would be away till June 5 because of the upcoming municipal elections in Bengal, while the DMK’s M.K. Alagiri was in Chennai. It is common practice for ministers to visit their states at the end of a long Parliament session.

Several Congress ministers too have been missing cabinet meetings. The cabinet committee on political affairs' meeting yesterday drew only four ministers.

Even the empowered group of ministers that was to study under-recoveries by oil companies from the sales of petrol, diesel and LPG may not meet tomorrow since only its head, Pranab Mukherjee, is now in Delhi. None of the rest ---- Pawar, Jaipal Reddy, C.P. Joshi, Alagiri, Roy or special invitee Montek Singh Ahluwalia --- is in Delhi.

Petrol prices may be cut by Rs 1.50-1.80 early next month if the current trend of softening in international oil prices continues, oil companies indicated today.

Worried over the political backlash, the government fielded chief executives of the state-owned oil companies to explain the compulsions that led to the increase in petrol price, the third in a year but the first in almost seven months.

'Current trend (in international prices) indicates that prices (of petrol) can come down,' IOC chairman R.S. Butola told reporters here.

Oil companies revise petrol prices on 1st and 16th of every month on the basis of average international oil price and the foreign exchange rate in the previous fortnight.