India has no immediate plans to deregulate diesel fuel prices

India’s Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh said that the government has no immediate plans to deregulate the price of diesel fuel. “There is no immediate plan to decontrol diesel fuel or LPG as they have cascading effect (on general prices),” he said. But the government has been changing petrol prices fortnightly and hopes that the public will get used to the changes. Petrol prices were deregulated last June and now fluctuate according to world market trends. State-owned oil companies are selling diesel fuel at Rs13.53 (US$0.27) per liter, kerosene at Rs29.99 (US$0.59) per liter and domestic LPG at Rs287 (US$5.72) per 14.2-kg cylinder. As a result, Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. are expected to lose Rs137,605 crore (US$27.4 billion) in revenues for 2011. The three companies are selling diesel fuel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government-controlled rates and are losing Rs425 crore (US$84.8 million) per day. (December 8, 2011)