Moily rules out roll-back of diesel price hike

Oil minister M Veerappa Moily has ruled out a roll-back of the hike in diesel price saying that bulk consumers should find resources to meet the higher cost of fuel while individual consumers may not find the 50 paise per month hike in the price of the popular fuel too taxing.

The petroleum ministry had announced a 45 paise increase in retail price of diesel for January while raising the rate for bulk consumers like defence, railways, state road transport undertakings and fleet owners to market-determined price.

''No, no, there is no question of roll-back,'' Moily, said on the sidelines of a Congress brainstorming session in Jaipur.

Bulk users like car and truck fleet owners and state road transport corporations have to pay Rs10 more for a litre of diesel while individual consumers have to pay 45 paise more per litre of diesel.

''For bulk consumers of HSD taking supplies directly from the installations of the OMCs, henceforth, no subsidy shall be available and the price shall be non-subsidised market determined price. Accordingly, the price of diesel for bulk consumers taking supplies directly from installations of IndianOil shall stand increased by Rs9.25 per litre (excluding VAT) wef midnight of 17-18 January2013,'' IOC said in release on Thursday.

After including local sales tax or VAT, diesel prices for retail users in Mumbai will be Rs53.71 per litre of diesel while for bulk users the new rate would be around Rs62 per litre.

Moily claimed that diesel and petrol had been deregulated by the BJP-led NDA government as far back as in 2002 and that the UPA government was only delaying it by continuing to subsidise diesel.