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Mr Murli Deora, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas (file photo).

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug 13 There is no scope for reducing the domestic fuel prices at this stage, the Union Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora, said on Wednesday. While stating that the decline in the global oil prices is a welcome development, he told newspersons that “but there is no scope for reduction in domestic prices now, as they are pegged at a much lower level of crude oil.”

The domestic crude basket price has come down by $2.54 a barrel from Monday to $109.88 on Tuesday. The basket had hit the lowest on April 1 at $96.52 a barrel and touched a high of $142.04 on July 3. The domestic fuel prices are pegged at $68 a barrel.

“Our retail prices are pegged much lower than current international crude prices,” he added.

When asked on the B.K. Chaturvedi committee report, he said, the Government would thoroughly consider the report of a panel.

The committee has suggested higher fuel prices and lower subsidies, temporary duty changes, and also change in the method of calculating retail selling price of fuel.

“I am told some recommendations of the committee can be implemented while some others could be difficult to implement. On August 19, I have called a meeting of oil PSU chiefs to discuss the recommendations as we need to do a thorough analysis before we arrive at any decision,” he said.

At the next Tuesday meeting (August 19), the Ministry also proposes to discuss diesel shortage in some parts of the country. The country’s diesel demand is growing at an unexpectedly high rate of 23-24 per cent causing shortages in some regions.

In the first quarter (April-June) diesel sales by oil companies rose sharply, registering annual growth of nearly 18 per cent. This was mainly due to use of diesel for power generation.

“Demand-supply gap seems to have widened because of this,” he said.

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