Subsidy bill worrisome, but no move to hike LPG, kerosene prices: Pradhan
07 Jul 2014
Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Sunday that he wanted to tackle the subsidy burden on the government in innovative ways, even as he accused the previous UPA government of leaving the coffers empty.
In an interview with Network18, Pradhan said that the rollout of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) is one such strategy to get the mounting subsidy bill under control.
The minister gave an assurance that the government had no plans to raise the prices of LPG and kerosene as was reported in the media a few days back.
He, however, added that the monthly hike of diesel prices would continue. "How to tackle subsidy burden is the biggest challenge of the government. The monthly diesel price rise will continue, but there are no plans to rise LPG and kerosene prices," he said.
On the recent controversy over pricing of domestically produced gas, Pradhan said that it would not adopt the Rangarajan formula as there were some issues with its recommendations. He added that all stakeholders would be consulted before taking a call on gas pricing.
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