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| "The consensus was that even Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) should not be disinvested," petroleum minister Ram Naik told newsmen after the meeting.
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| The members wanted the oil sector to remain under state control since it had strategic importance.
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| The minister said that most of the 28 members of Parliament who attended the meeting voiced serious reservations on privatisation of public sector oil companies.
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| Earlier this month, the cabinet committee on disinvestment had decided to explore the option of selling a part of IOC. The members concurred with IOC's view that it would bleed to death if its 8,000 petrol pumps are sold off.
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| Naik said that some Mps were of the view that IOC's proposal to acquire government's 34 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) would be an acceptable formula to generate revenue for the government.
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| The corporation has proposed to pay Rs 10,000 crore to the government for acquiring stake in HPCL. Alternatively, it has proposed to sell 20 per cent of the equity shares in domestic and overseas market to generate $ 2 billion.
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| The minister, however, refused to comment on the Centre asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its judgment on HPCL and BPCL disinvestment.
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| Meanwhile, the administered pricing mechanism (APM) in the oil sector has the solution to the problems facing pricing of petroleum products. This is what some members of the Parliamentary consultative committee attached to the petroleum ministry seemed to suggest today.
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| The members wanted product prices brought down by bringing down the price of crude oil being paid to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL), it is learnt. "Why should they make high profits at the cost of the consumer," they argued.
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| Moreover, according to them, prices of petroleum products should be kept stable for a longer period of time, say six months instead of the current 14 days. This was the practice prevailing during the APM era.
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| Industry experts say that both these measures are possible only if the country reverts back to the APM era because it is only under APM that the government could fix a lower price for domestic crude and keep product prices stable over six months or so and absorb losses or profits during this period. |
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