Petrol prices are likely to shoot past the
Rs 60 per litre mark this week while the
government has postponed to next week its meeting to take a call on
hiking the prices of diesel and cooking gas.
"The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was to meet Wednesday evening. The meeting has been put off," Oil Minister S. Jaipal Reddy told journalists.
"It has been postponed to accommodate some ministers... It could be anytime on May 17 or 18," the minister said.
However, the public sector oil companies are likely to get the green signal for raising the price of petrol within this week as the issue does not have to go to the EGoM. According to sources, the price of petrol is likely to go up by Rs 3 a litre, which would take it past the Rs 60 per litre mark in the capital.
The public sector oil companies had on January 15 announced a Rs 2.50 per litre hike in the price of petrol making what the government sees as the "rich man's fuel" costlier by more than Rs 10 per litre in seven months.
This works out to a whopping 22 per cent increase in six successive hikes. Petrol now costs as much as Rs 58.37 per litre at retail outlets in Delhi.
According to the official policy the oil companies are free to charge market prices for petrol but in practice the government still exercises control over them.
The oil companies had been asked to keep petrol prices on hold because of the assembly elections in five states.
The GoM meeting next week will consider raising the price of diesel by Rs 3-4 a litre and that of domestic LPG Rs 20-25 per cylinder.
This is bound to stretch household budgets, which are already under strain due to the inflationary spiral. However, the petroleum ministry has expressed the view that there is no way out as the public sector oil companies are making huge losses due to skyrocketing crude prices in the international market.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) currently lose around Rs 18 a litre on diesel sales.
Besides petrol and diesel, the three state oil firms lose Rs 29.69 a litre on kerosene and Rs 330 per 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder.
The EGoM is expected to find a way out for reducing the over Rs 180,000 crore revenue loss that the public sector oil companies have projected in 2011-12 on selling diesel, LPG and kerosene at current domestic prices and the prevailing international prices of crude oil.
Reddy snubs Cairn CEO Gammel
Cairn Energy chief executive officer (CEO) Bill Gammel was snubbed by petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy and petroleum secretary G. C. Chaturvedi as he barnstormed into Shastri Bhavan on Tuesday morning without any prior appointment.
Gammel wanted to meet Reddy in the run up to the group of ministers (GoM) meeting, which will take a decision on the Cairn proposal to sell the Rajasthan oilfields and other assets to scrap dealer-turned billionaire Anil Aggarwal's Vedanta Resources and push for an early approval.
Gammel, who has been blowing hot and cold over the issue and had even got British PM David Cameron to intervene in the matter, was told that he could not meet the minister without a prior appointment. |
Courtesy: Mail Today 
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