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Fuel pricing may be reviewed in June
20 May 2010: The Union Government will review its fuel pricing system next month and may allow state-run firms like ONGC to gradually raise the price of natural gas to levels charged by Reliance Industries (RIL).
A panel of ministers headed by Union Minister of Finance will meet in the first week of June to consider changes in the system by which the government sets the prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas, and kerosene.
The panel is expected to consider the report of an official committee that said petrol and diesel prices should be deregulated, while state-set prices of kerosene and cooking gas should be raised.
The government has approved a price of $4.2 per million British thermal units for natural gas sold by RIL, but state firms are allowed to charge less than half that rate.
The increase in the administered price, which applies to the 40 per cent of India's gas output of 140 million standard cubic mtrs a day (mmscmd) that is sold mainly to power and fertiliser firms, is a key step towards reducing distortions in a market with more than a dozen rates.
Source: DNA