UNI
New Delhi, May 24: The Centre in all probability is expected to announce the fresh dose of price hike in petroleum products over the next ten days.
The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora said any hike in petroleum products would be announced only after another round of talks within the Congress, the Left parties and with the Finance Minister.
He said the final decision on oil price hike will depend upon the outcome of these meetings.
The Petroleum Minister's comments at this juncture is very crucial in the wake of soaring world crude oil prices and its impact on the financial health of public sector oil companies. A high level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and attended by Finance Minister P Chidambaram was held here last week to take stock of the situation. The meeting in which Mr Deora was also present did not result in any final decision in this regard.
The issue attains significant importance as the international oil prices are hovering around 73 dollars a barrel. At this level the Indian basket of imported crude was touching 69 dollars a barrel.
In view of such huge difference in international crude oil price, the public sector oil companies were expected to suffer a loss of around Rs 73,000 crore on sale of oil products in case prices are not revised in the current financial year.
Meanwhile, the oil companies have demanded that prices of petrol be raised by Rs 9.33 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 10.43 a litre, kerosene by Rs 17.16 per litre and LPG by Rs 114.45 a cylinder.
However, the Left Parties the biggest outside allies of the UPA Government have warned the Government against increasing the petroleum prices and have advised it to set up a ''Price Stabilization Fund'' from the huge stock of Rs 55000 crore collected by way of cess on crude oil.
They have also urged the Government to reduce the various taxes which amounts to over 132 per cent in the cost of the petroleum products. The Government has also been advised by them to downwardly review the royalty on crude oil which is being paid to the State Government.