Light diesel oil to be removed from solvent control order to facilitate smooth sale

The petroleum ministry has approved the removal of light diesel oil (LDO) from the purview of Solvent Raffinate and Slop (Acquisition, Storage and Prevention to use in Automobile) Order, 2000.

This will do away with the requirement of procuring licenses and other restrictions imposed by the order, and facilitate the smoother sale of LDO in the country. The decision was taken in view of favourable views provided by the industry and technical bodies like Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun and Indian Oil R&D Centre, Faridabad. The government had also received a representation from the Petroleum Products Dealers and Manufacturers'' Association, Mumbai in this regard.

LDO along with furnace oil (FO) was earlier brought under the purview of Solvent Raffinate and Slop (Acquisition, Storage and Prevention to use in Automobile) Order, 2000 through an amendment order dated 21 November.2001 as a substantial price difference between these two products and high speed diesel (HSD) offered an incentive for unscrupulous dealers for using LDO / FO as adulterants.

Over the years, the price difference between LDO and HSD has come down to negligible levels while the price of FO is still about Rs10 per litre lower than HSD and therefore, it does not enjoy any significant price advantage over HSD. Therefore the government decided to remove LDO from the purview of Solvent Control Order. The petroleum ministry will issue a notification in this regard shortly.