'No proposal to levy taxes on petro sector'

New Delhi, May 28: The Finance Ministry today denied reports that there was any proposal to levy fresh taxes on the petroleum sector, saying these were of a speculative nature.

In a release here, the Ministry said its attention has been drawn to reports appearing in a section of media following a routine meeting between Petroleum Minister Mural Deora and Finance Minister P Chidambaram. ''The reports are largely speculative and in particular, reports about certain new tax proposals are totally baseless.'' it said. The release said no one from Ministry of Finance had briefed the media on the meeting.

Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum S Sundareshan had told newspersons that the government was not considering on imposing a cess on income tax payees to bridge the gap resulting from under recoveries of oil marketing companies.

UNI