After a lot of hesitation to increase the price and many delays, the price of the diesel had been increased by Rs 5 per liter on Thursday. The cooking gas, LPG, which had 12 subsidized cylinders every year was reduced to six an year which almost doubled the required expenditure by a family on average per year on the gas.

Political Parties and even transporters have protested against the record price hike of Rs 5 which the nation had never seen to date. UPA allies too joined the protest against the price hike demanding a rollback to the earlier prices. Trinamool Congress's leader, Mamatha Banarjee, underlined the government's intent to repair its finances by reining in subsidies.

The poor and the lower middle class households would have to face severe economic crunches after the  hike on the prices. Transportation charges may go up minimally but the LPG cooking gas subsidy being removed on six of the cooking cylinders would burn holes in the wallets of the people.

On average the families are currently spending around Rs 5000 on cooking gas with 12 subsidized cylinders. However, the new hike would force them to pay around Rs 2500 on average for the subsidized cylinders and another six would have to be purchased at market prices which would be around Rs 4700 approximately, taking the total price almost 50% higher than the earlier prices.

Market rates for the cooking gas would be reviewed every month by the oil companies. In the remaining six months of the Financial year till March 2013, households are allowed to purchase 3 subsidized cylinders.

(AW- Anil)