| Follow us on:
|
![India budgeted 634 billion rupees ($10 billion) this fiscal year for petroleum subsidies -- including diesel, cooking gas and kerosene [Image: Archives]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/LPG2.jpg)
India budgeted 634 billion rupees ($10 billion) this fiscal year for petroleum subsidies — including diesel, cooking gas and kerosene [Image: Archives]
Steps to dismantle India’s subsidies would allow the Narendra Modi-administration to follow through with a pledge to take tough steps to revive Asia’s third-biggest economy.
“From January 1 LPG subsidy is going though banks…We have to gradually rationalise all possible subsidies,” the Finance Minister said while addressing an Indian industry body function in New Delhi on Monday.
Under the subsidies, households are entitled to buy the LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinders at less than half the market price. It is a highly popular, and sometimes vital, scheme in a country of 1.2 billion people.
India budgeted 634 billion rupees ($10 billion) this fiscal year for petroleum subsidies — including diesel, cooking gas and kerosene — down 25 per cent from the previous 12 months.
Modi’s predecessor had already set the process in motion, eliminating controls on petrol prices in 2010 and last year raising diesel prices by 0.5 rupees a liter each month.
Meanwhile, India will increase public spending on infrastructure, the Finance Minister said on Monday.
The government estimates the country needs to spend $800 billion on infrastructure to grow 7 per cent per annum.
The Minister also underline the need for stability in tax and other policies to make India an attractive place for investment.
TBP and Agencies
