Diesel may go up Rs1.5 a month till March, Re1 thereafter

The government is planning to hike the price of diesel by Rs1.5 a litre every month from January  till March this year, which will take the hike to Rs4.5 over the period, according to a report today.

The price of LPG or cooking gas cylinders will go up by Rs130 during the period, leaving aside the six cylinders a year per family allowed at subsidised rates.

On kerosene, the proposal is that the prices be either increased by 35 paise a litre per month or Rs1 a litre per quarter till March 2015, according to the Hindustan Times which says it has seen a copy of these proposals being considered by the government.

On Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had publicly called for a hike in prices of subsidised fuels. Based on the recommendations of the Vijay Kelkar Committee report which the petroleum ministry is currently studying, diesel prices would be hiked by Rs2-3 a litre, while cooking gas could go up by Rs50-75 a cylinder.

Now, HT reported the latest proposals may be taken to the cabinet for a final decision by Prime Minister Singh and other senior cabinet ministers. It does not clarify who exactly has submitted these proposals.

On LPG, it is proposed that the three oil marketing companies - Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, all state-owned - should be authorised to hike the price of each subsidised cylinder by Rs130 plus VAT as applicable.