Cannes: On a day when state-run oil companies hiked petrol prices, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that the price of the fuel is not fixed by the government.
"The petrol price is a decontrolled price. Those prices are not set by the government," Ahluwalia said in an interview to private news channel on the sidelines of G-20 meeting IN Cannes.
State-run oil marketing companies Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum increased petrol prices by Rs 1.80 per litre with effect from Thursday midnight.
This is the second hike in petrol prices in less than two months and it came on a day when the food inflation rose "dangerously" to 12.21 per cent for the week ended October 22.
On the likely impact of this decision of oil firms on the skyrocketing inflation, he said, "Controlling inflation is a concern for policy makers and representatives of the government have said that inflation is too high and we should bring it under control."
"What the government needs to do is to look at the overall rate of inflation and bring it down," he added.
The headline inflation measured in terms of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) has been above 9 per cent mark since December last year and stood at 9.72 per cent in the month of September.
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