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Petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily today said that there are no plans to go for a diesel price hike more than the monthly dose of 50 paise, while also ruling out an increase in prices of domestic LPG.
When asked whether the ministry is approaching Cabinet to go for a higher dose of diesel price hike by more than Rs 3per litre, in order to reduce the under recovery from Rs 10.22 per litre, Moily said, 'At present, were have no plans or proposals on our table to increase either diesel or domestic LPG prices.'
However, the ministry sources suggest that such a move cannot be ruled out after the Monsoon session of the Parliament. For the second fortnight of August, the under recoveries on kerosene and LPG stood at Rs 33.54 per litre and Rs 412 per cylinder respectively.
Oil marketing companies have reported Rs 25,579 crore as under-recoveries during the first quarter of the financial year. As of August 16, OMCs were incurring a combined daily under-recovery of about Rs 389.00 crore on the sale of diesel, kerosene and domestic LPG.
Though the companies were going for a monthly diesel decontrol dose of 45-50 paise, the fall in rupee and rise in international crude oil prices had a negative impact on under recoveries.
