Davanagere, May 2 -- union Minister Prahlad Joshi on Saturday mounted a strong defence of the Centre's fuel pricing policy, arguing that the recent commercial LPG price hike had become unavoidable as public sector oil companies were "bleeding like anything" amid escalating global energy pressures.
Amid opposition criticism over rising fuel costs, Joshi said India's heavy dependence on imported LPG had exposed the country to international market volatility, making price corrections inevitable despite the Centre absorbing a substantial portion of the burden.
"More than 50 per cent of our LPG dependency is on imports. This is an international problem," he told reporters, while asserting that the Narendra Modi government had still managed to ...