Aiyar to discuss pricing of petro products with FM

Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar will meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday to discuss changes in the pricing and duty structure of petroleum products.

Speaking on the sidelines of a function today, Aiyar said the issue of price hike was being examined. "We will be going in for a sustainable pricing policy," he said.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha earlier in the day, Aiyar said the public sector oil marketing companies have not passed on the full increase in international prices to consumers of diesel and petrol.

The government had worked out a price band mechanism with effect from August 1, 2004 allowing OMCs to revise the prices of petrol and diesel within the band.

The steep and volatile increase in international prices of crude oil resulted in the ceiling of the price band being breached within weeks of its being made operational resulting in the mechanism being placed in abeyance, he said.

The Indian basket of crude oil touched an all-time high of $52.83 a barrel on April 4, 2005 compared to an average price of $27.96 a barrel in 2003-04 and $39.21 a barrel in 2004-05.