The Indian government on Monday said it was not considering increasing rates of diesel, domestic gas or LPG and kerosene for the moment, reports said, quoting Oil Minister S. Jaipal Reddy.
After the meeting called by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the impact of fuel price hike on inflation, Reddy said, "We are not considering hike prices of diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene. It is out of question right now."
Reddy said no dates have yet been fixed for convening a meeting of a ministerial panel to decide on revising rates of diesel, LPG and kerosene. Congress party's ruling allies TMC and DMK have held street protests against the hike in petrol price.
The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on fuel prices, headed by Mukherjee, has not met since June last year, even though depreciation in the rupee and rise in international oil prices have raised the cost of imports.
The EGoM had in June 2010 taken an in-principle decision to deregulate or decontrol diesel prices but its implementation was deferred.
State-owned oil companies currently lose Rs.512 crore per day on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene. Diesel is currently sold at a loss of Rs.15.35 a litre, kerosene at Rs.32.98 per litre loss and oil firms lose Rs.479 on sale of every 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder. Last fiscal, IOC, HPCL and BPCL had together lost Rs.138,541 crore in revenue and this fiscal they projected to lose a record Rs.193,880 crore.
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