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Decision on petro price hike by month end: Naik

Petroleum Minister Ram Naik on Saturday said a decision on increasing prices of petro products would be taken before the end of September.

The finance ministry has already agreed to reduce excise and custom duties, he informed.

Naik said if the international crude oil prices continued to average $30 a barrel, the oil pool deficit would touch Rs 236 billion.

The government would aim at reducing the deficit through a mixture of price increase, excise and custom duty reduction and issuance of oil bonds, the minister said.

He said each of the three measures would provide one-third of the additional revenue to bridge the deficit. The government has Rs 50 billion in public deposit, which can be used for issuing oil bonds, Naik said.

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