GoM meet on fuel pricing deferred

A meeting of Group of Ministers (GoM) on fuel prices, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, that was scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed.

"The meeting, earlier scheduled for December 14, has been postponed due to non-availability of some ministers," Petroleum Secretary MS Srinivasan said here.

The ministerial group is to look into pricing of some essential commodities, including petrol, diesel, domestic cooking gas and PDS kerosene.

The GoM also includes Defence Minister AK Antony, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister TR Baalu and Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Pawar.

IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are projected to lose Rs 69,753 crore on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and PDS kerosene as the government has not allowed them to raise prices in line with the price of imported crude.

Petrol is being sold at a loss of Rs 8.74 a litre, diesel at Rs 9.92 per litre, kerosene Rs 20.53 a litre and LPG at a loss of Rs 256.35 per cylinder.

The government is understood to be mulling a marginal hike in petrol and diesel price along with an excise duty cut on auto fuels to cut the Rs 7,840-crore loss public sector oil firms are incurring every month on selling fuel below cost.

An increase of one rupee a litre in petrol price would cut under-recoveries by Rs 90 crore a litre and the same on diesel would slash the loss by Rs 360 crore a month.