The Hindu Business Line : `Govt will take tough action against LPG black marketers'

QUEST FOR ENERGY SECURITY: The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, with the IOC Chairman, Mr Sarthak Behuria, at the inauguration of Hydrogen-CNG Dispensing Station at Indian Oil's R&D centre at Faridabad on Sunday. - Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Oct 9

THE Government will take tough action against black marketers of LPG. The Petroleum Minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, has asked the oil marketing companies to examine whether the rationalisation of the LPG order by the Government is working or not.

"I warn black marketers that very strict action will be taken if subsidised LPG is found to be diverted for commercial use. The LPG distributorship will be cancelled and action will be taken against oil company officials found conniving with the diversion," the Minister told newspersons after commissioning IOC's pilot hydrogen-CNG (HCNG) dispensing station in Faridabad, near Delhi. The commissioning of the station is part of the quest for energy security by harnessing alternative fuels.

He also said that subsidised domestic LPG was being diverted for use by commercial establishments, which should have paid the market price for the fuel.

In a bid to arrest the LPG crunch, India will start importing additional quantities of LPG this week; the crunch is mainly a result of the closure of a unit at the Reliance Industries Jamnagar refinery, creating a deficit of 0.3 million tonnes.

Scarcity of LPG is also attributed to the strike on September 29 at IOC's bottling plant in Delhi. Public sector refineries have also been told to ramp up LPG production and reduce inventory stocks to make available additional quantities in the market.

"In our assessment, by the time inventories reach critical level, imports would have come in," he said.

The decision to import additional LPG was taken last week after a meeting with chiefs of oil marketing companies.

In the due course of time, IOC's R&D, in co-ordination with vehicle manufacturers, will take up lab-scale development of the HCNG engines for optimising them for emission reductions using existing storage infrastructure onboard.

IOC has also paid out a total dividend of 145 per cent amounting to Rs 1,693.62 crore for 2004-05 on total share capital of Rs 1,168 crore.

This includes final dividend of 100 per cent approved by the shareholders recently.

Mr Sarthak Behuria, Chairman of IOC, presented to Mr Aiyar a cheque for Rs 958.08 crore, representing the final dividend of 100 per cent payable to the Government.

Earlier, in December 2004, IOC had paid an interim dividend of 45 per cent for 2004-05, amounting to Rs 431.14 crore, to the Government.

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