Government likely to hike petro fuel prices
22 Jun 2009
The government is likely to raise the price of natural gas produced by ONGC and Oil India Ltd by over 17 per cent, under its administered price mechanism, in order to help the two state-run oil companies cut costs.
Petroleum minister Murli Deora said the government was also considering freeing prices of petrol and diesel from administrative controls.
"I had said that this will be taken up in four to six weeks and we are still considering it," Deora said.
The government is reported to be planning to make the selling price of natural gas a constituent of the wholesale price index, on which the inflation rate is calculated.
The ministry of petroleum and natural gas has proposed to raise prices of natural gas produced by ONGC from the fields given to it on a nomination basis to Rs3,765 per thousand cubic meters (or $1.98 per million British thermal units) from the current Rs3,200 per thousand cubic meter ($1.68 per mmBtu).
For OIL, it has proposed a gas price of Rs4,205 per thousand cubic meters, official sources said.