APM back, fortnightly pricing to go

Govt aims to remove anomoly in petro products' pricing.

The government today decided to review the pricing policy for the petroleum sector. Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said the problem was the anomaly in fuel prices, where petrol prices were linked to import parity, but prices of diesel, cooking gas and kerosene were not.

"The ministry will have to examine this anomaly," he said at the Economic Editors' Conference here.

The minister also said the current practice of a fortnightly review of petrol and diesel prices was in for a change. The government would control the pricing of sensitive products like LPG, kerosene and diesel.

The petroleum ministry would also be putting in place an industrial marketing plan for the sector. "We have asked the Petroleum Federation of India to see whether private companies can also join the plan," he said.

On the previous government's claim regarding the dismantling of the administered prices mechanism, he said, "We have been far more honest in saying the government will control prices of cooking gas and auto fuels," he said.

He said the Cabinet's decision to hike domestic cooking gas price by Rs 5 a cylinder every month would not be changed and the first in the series of increases would take place on December 1.