In the first place, there is no doubt that the hike will have a negative impact on the economy, and that certain segments of society, such as small-hold farmers and poor urban consumers, will be hit disproportionately hard. However, whether the government has made any arrangements to alleviate the coming hardships through targeted subsidies or otherwise remains an open question. Indeed, we do not see any evidence that the government has taken any steps that would help to minimise the resultant economic fall-out.

It must be added here that the decision was taken without apparent consultation with the relevant stakeholders, such as the business and farming communities. There was not even any debate in parliament on the issue, which is the most shocking lapse. As a result, the decision was hurriedly approved on Saturday and came into effect the next day.

Such a secretive and abrupt decision-making process is not the best way to go about things, and hardly inspires confidence. Although speculation, informed or otherwise, was rife, the government gave mixed signals right until the end as to its intentions. A better approach would surely have been to hold an open debate on the issue, which would at least have had the virtue of better preparing the public for what was coming, and then perhaps to have introduced the increases in a phased manner.

The country deserved to be included in the discourse. Subjects such as diesel and kerosene subsidies, possible austerity measures, and lowering excise duty on fuel so that less of the burden would fall on individual consumers, could fruitfully have been debated.

It is possible that the government debated such possibilities behind closed doors. But keeping the public out of the loop and springing the fuel price increase on the country in such a sudden manner has done nothing to minimise the difficulty that this decision will cause.