Immediate hike in prices of petroleum products ruled out

Union Petroleum minister Murli Deora today ruled out any immediate hike in prices of petroleum products, including LPG and kerosene.

"As far as possible we will not increase prices of these products", Deora told a press meet here.

Last year, the government and the oil companies had together shared 87 per cent of the burden of under recoveries caused by the high oil prices, he said.

The price of PDS kerosene had not been hiked in the last three years keeping in the interest of the poor and vulnerable sections of the society, he said adding it had been kept at about Rs 9 per litre.

This has been done by providing a huge subsidy by the government and the oil companies to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore though the global oil prices touched record highs, he said.

The Centre was providing subsidy of Rs 16 per litre by providing PDS kerosene at about Rs 9 per litre.

The minister said he would urge the Finance minister, P Chidambaram to further bring down the excise and customs duties of the petroleum products.

The two duties have been considerably reduced, but that was not enough, he said.

"We are doing our best to see that prices do not increase", he said.