The Gas Authority of India Ltd (Gail) has requested permission to enter the lucrative sector of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) marketing.
It asked the government for authorisation to market 8 per cent of its annual liquefied petroleum gas output to bulk industrial consumers, to retail automobile liquefied petroleum gas and to enter the domestic LPG market from 2004.
In a recent presentation to the petroleum ministry, Gail said direct marketing of LPG would have a positive impact on its share price, resulting in higher returns to the government when it divested 2-2.5 per cent of its equity.
It added that the parliamentary standing committee on petroleum and chemicals had said in a report:
