Government to decide on cooking gas, kerosene price hike

Chennai, March 20: The central government will take a decision on hiking the cooking gas and kerosene prices on the lines recommended by Kirit Parikh committee, an official said Saturday.

"The ministry of petroleum and natural gas is examining it and a decision will be taken. The implementation of the report will be from next fiscal onwards," said Petroleum Secretary S. Sundareshan.

Speaking to reporters here Saturday, he said the oil marketing companies lose around Rs.5 per litre of petrol, Rs.3 per litre of diesel, Rs.16 per litre of kerosene and Rs.260 per liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder.

"The combined under recovery of the oil companies is around Rs.45,000 crore for the current fiscal. I don't think it is possible for ever to sustain such a policy," he said.

According to him, Rs.13,000 crore of under recoveries from the sale of petrol and diesel will be absorbed by the upstream oil companies. The under recovery in respect of LPG and kerosene will be met by the government.

He said the government may issue oil bonds or give cash to the oil companies.

According to him, Rs.12,000 crore cash has been disbursed to the oil marketing companies and the balance may slip into the next fiscal.