Diesel, LPG price hike put off, but petrol to spurt
11 May 2011
A decision on hiking the prices of diesel and cooking gas (LPG) has been put off yet again, but petrol is likely to go up this week by at least Rs3 a litre.
''The empowered group of ministers (EGoM), headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, was to meet tomorrow evening. It has been put off,'' petroleum minister S Jaipal Reddy told newspersons in New Delhi on Tuesday.
He added that it had been postponed to ''accommodate some ministers'', and could now be held on 17 or 18 May.
The deferral seems mainly to have been on behalf of railways minister Mamata Banerjee, who is busy with the post-election scenario in her home state of West Bengal.
It was widely expected that the administered prices of diesel and LPG would be hiked immediately after the state assembly elections, as international crude prices have soared from $75 a barrel to well over $100 a barrel since the last price hike in June last year. But this has not happened.
However, the government has given its consent to the oil marketing companies (all of them state-owned) to hike petrol prices, which had been officially decontrolled last June – though the government still maintains an indirect grip on them.
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