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Fuel price hike deferred: PTI

The government said on Saturday that prices of diesel, LPG, kerosene, petrol and aviation turbine fuel will be increased, but a decision on the timing will be taken in due course.

Ruling out a hike in prices on Saturday, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik told reporters after a meeting in New Delhi of the Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, "There will not be any announcement today... it will be made in due course of time."

"I have briefed the cabinet about the prevailing scenario in the wake of shooting international prices... we have no option but to increase prices of all five products under the administered price mechanism," he added.

Expressing concern over the global crude prices which shot up from 11 dollars a barrel last year to over 36 dollars now, Naik said that oil pool deficit had become unmanageable.

"We will go for a mix of increase in prices, cut in duties and oil bonds to reduce the deficit," he said.

Asserting that he need not go to the cabinet on the issue and that a final decision would be taken by him, Naik said that he was invited for the meeting of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners, where he will give the coalition partners a presentation on the oil scenario in the country.

Appealing to state governments to lower sales tax on petro products by five per cent for giving immediate relief to consumers, Naik said that any further delay in price hike was not possible now.

"We last revised the prices of kerosene and LPG in March and refrained from passing the burden of shooting international prices to consumers... we have reached the limit," he said, emphasising that increase in prices would be kept to a limit where consumers could bear the burden.

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