Group of ministers to review fuel prices: Manmohan

Mumbai: The government has constituted a group of ministers (GoM) to look into the revision of fuel prices, which has been necessitated by the spurt in global crude oil prices, prime minister Manmohan Singh told newspersons on his way to Singapore to attend the ASEAN summit.

"Cabinet did discuss this matter. I have appointed a GoM to report back to the cabinet within one month," he said. He, however, did not say when the cabinet discussed the issue and who would head the GoM.

Petroleum ministry officials in New Delhi, however, said the ministry has not received any communiqué on the appointment of a GoM, adding that, "In all probability it should be headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee."

Public sector oil firms such as Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are together incurring losses of over Rs250 crore per day on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic cooking gas LPG and kerosene at government determined prices despite a spurt in international prices of crude oil.

There is, however, no unanimity among the various ministries on the issue of raising fuel prices, industry officials point out. In fact, they point out, the finance ministry was opposed to the petroleum ministry''s proposal to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to ease the burden of oil firms.

Petrol attracts an excise duty of 6 per cent plus Rs13 a litre while diesel is charged 6 per cent plus Rs3.25 per litre excise duty. Petroleum ministry has sought lowering of excise duty by Rs1-2 a litre.