The oil hike's inevitable

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Going by the coverage of the recent oil price hike in both English as well as non-English-language dailies, the government has done a credible job of containing the hikes to the levels announced the other day.

Dailies in the Hindi-heartland all carried the news as the day's lead on when it happened, and had page-one stories on the likely hike the day before the Cabinet meeting to decide the issue.

Most papers went along with the official line that, with global oil prices at $70 a barrel, and likely to stay there for a while, the government had no option but to hike prices, and also quoted the Rs 40,000-crore loss figure that PSUs would incur in a no-hike situation.

Rajasthan Patrika and Punjab Kesri both had agency copy as the lead story along with tables giving the details of the new prices in the metros. Patrika even had a front-page anchor on the opposition by the Left parties.

While Punjab Kesri had an editorial on the matter, Patrika didn't. Dainik Bhaskar also had a lead editorial which said that while the BJP and the Left parties were all opposing the hike, neither of the two had come up with any credible solution to the problem.

The edit went on to say that the only possible solution offered was the one already tried by the UPA alliance, that of cutting import and excise duties on petroleum products.

None of the papers took the line taken by some in the English-language press that the current pricing system was encouraging more adulteration. And, now that the difference between kerosene and diesel prices had increased, adulteration would increase further.

Almost all the Bangla newspapers had kept developments on this front outside the front page for days together. Oil came on the front page only when the Union Cabinet approved a hike in the prices of petrol and diesel on Tuesday.

Even the news that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Left leaders on Monday to convince them about the urgent need to raise prices did not figure on the front page. The broad thrust of the reportage on the price hike decision was that while petrol and diesel became dearer, there was some relief for users of kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas.

Ananda Bazar Patrika carried the price hike report as the second lead of the day, while Bartaman made it the lead report. Both the newspapers carried a detailed chart of the new petrol and diesel prices in Kolkata along with the old ones.

Interestingly, the reports were completely silent on how the decision might help the oil marketing companies cut their losses they were incurring for the last few weeks. The government decision on floating of oil bonds to benefit oil marketing companies was also played down.

Ananda Bazar Patrika carried an editorial on the increase in oil prices a day later and pointed out how the decision was influenced by the government's political considerations of keeping the Left and other allies happy in the run up to the Assembly elections in Bihar in October-November and in other states including West Bengal next year.

It deplored the fact that politicians had ceased to pay any heed to what the economists have been advocating. The editorial argued that the government was paying the price for not allowing periodic hikes in domestic oil prices in tune with the international oil price trends and also questioned the logic of sparing LPG and kerosene from the price review decision.