New Delhi: The petroleum ministry has no immediate plans to raise the retail selling prices of petrol and diesel said petroleum minister, Murli Deora.

He also indicated that he would meet the finance minister, P Chidambaram, next week to seek bonds to partly compensate the state-owned oil companies for selling products below the cost price.

The ministry is expected to seek Rs19,000-crore worth of oil bonds for Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd in the current fiscal year ending March 2008.

The total under-realisation for the fiscal is estimated to be Rs55,000 crore. The Government expects state-run upstream companies to chip in an equal amount (Rs19,000 crore) as part of sharing the burden of higher crude prices.

The balance Rs17,000 crore will be borne by the refining and marketing companies themselves.

Oil companies said the under-recovery on petrol and diesel stood at Rs4.97 and Rs4.45 per litre respectively.

The under-realisation on sale of kerosene sold under the public distribution system stood at Rs14.64 per litre and that on sale of domestic liquefied petroleum gas was Rs189.14 per cylinder.