An empowered group of ministers (EGoM), headed by finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, will meet on June 7 to consider slashing fuel subsidy by freeing petrol and diesel prices from government control.
According to the terms of reference, an oil ministry official said, “The EGoM will consider a pricing policy for petrol and diesel, including decontrol. It will also decide on ways to bridge the deficit between the imported rate and retail price of LPG and kerosene.”
The revenue loss that state-owned Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum incurred on fuel sales came down to Rs 203 crore per day, from Rs 255 crore a day till last week. On the whole, state retailers are projected to lose Rs 72,300 crore in revenue this fiscal if fuel prices do not change.
“The hike needed to free auto fuel prices till last week was Rs 6.07 a litre in petrol and Rs 6.38 a litre in diesel. Raising prices, particularly that of diesel by such an amount in one go, was considered politically difficult,” the oil ministry official said.
“Things have, however, changed now,” the offical added.
They currently sell petrol at a loss of Rs 3.35 a litre, while that for diesel is Rs 3.49, Rs 18.82 for PDS kerosene and Rs 261.90 for every 14.2-kg LPG cylinder. — PTI