Private sector firms marketing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) have been hit hard by the Iraq war and the resultant spurt in international oil prices.
Some of the smaller parallel marketers, which were tottering because of the high level of subsidy given to public sector oil companies for domestic LPG, had closed shop.
A few major ones, like Exxon-Mobil, have also closed their LPG business. Shri Shakti, another big entrant, is in dire financial straits.
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The parallel marketers of LPG, who invested more than Rs 1,100 crore in building up infrastructure for the import, bottling and marketing of LPG, now feel "cheated".
The government had assured them that subsidy would be phased out as per the roadmap prepared for the dismantling of the administered pricing mechanism (APM) in 1997, and a level playing field created for them vis-