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Parliamentary panel favours regulatory mechanism for petro sector

A Parliamentary panel on Thursday suggested setting up of a regulatory mechanism for petroleum sector to ensure that all players followed the prescribed rules and consumers are protected in the deregulated scenario.

"The government has undertaken the process of deregulation in full swing, but there is no existence of any such mechanism or authority to ensure that all the players follow the same prescribed rules in the deregulated scenario," Parliamentary Standing Committee on Petroleum said in its latest report tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

Stating that the post-dismantling of Administered Pricing Mechanism would be more tough, the committee strongly recommended that the government take steps for expeditious setting up of necessary downstream as well as upstream regulations to ensure optimal exploitation of resources and adequate availability of products.

The committee also urged the government to take every care to see that diesel, LPG and kerosene were made available to common people at reasonable prices in all parts of the country in the post-APM period.

Noting that the country had a large unsatisfied demand of natural gas, the panel said against the demand of 110 million cubic metres per day in 1999-2000, the domestic supply was 64 million cubic meters per day.

Gas demand is predicted to grow strongly at seven per cent per annum, it said adding "unless domestic production increases, there would be an urgent need to import natural gas."

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