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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Hike in diesel, cooking gas prices on anvil

Hike in diesel, cooking gas prices on anvil

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published Published on Jan 5, 2013   modified Modified on Jan 5, 2013
-The Times of India

Brace for higher fuel bills as the government has formally started the consultation process for raising diesel and cooking gas prices - the latter with an increased annual cap of nine subsidized refills - in line with the recommendations of a finance ministry panel.

The committee under former bureaucrat Vijay Kelkar, tasked to suggest a roadmap for cutting fiscal deficit, has suggested raising diesel price periodically to align it with market rate by the beginning of 2014-15 fiscal. The panel also suggested raising cooking gas and kerosene prices.

Diesel is the main fuel for transportation and farming sectors. Any increase in the fuel's price has a cascading effect on the cost of daily living. Deregulation would mean either raising the price by Rs 10 a litre or Re 1 every month for the next 10 months.

That's why the government may not immediately deregulate diesel to avoid stoking public anger and giving the economy a shock. Instead, it may look at a partial float of the price by setting a fixed subsidy - say Rs 5 a litre. Under this system, the fuel's pump price would be raised if the market rate rises beyond the fixed subsidy.

Another option that the government may look at is to raise the price by Rs 4 a litre and take a final call as part of the budget more than two months later. Such a hike would not be too much for the economy since the inflation rate is in the single digit. A full deregulation could be rolled out once the direct cash transfer system rolls out across the country so that the subsidy could be paid to farmers directly.

Oil minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday said the Kelkar recommendations are "a proposal" and his ministry was "only processing that report and we are yet to take a decision".

Even finance minister P Chidamabaram on Wednesday had said the deregulating diesel price was not a "one-dimensional" issue and the government would have to study the various "dimensions" before taking a decision.

Price of diesel, which costs Rs 47.15 per litre in Delhi, was last revised by Rs 5.63 a litre on September 14. Kerosene rates have not changed since June, 2011, and state fuel retailers lose Rs 32.17 a litre on the poor man's fuel and Rs 490.50 per cooking gas refill.

On higher subsidized cooking gas cap, Moily confirmed the government was considering raising the cap to nine per household in a year from the existing six. But the higher cap could come with Rs 110 increase in the price.

The Times of India, 5 January, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Hike-in-diesel-cooking-gas-prices-on-anvil/articleshow/17893287.cms


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