Govt to shield consumers from volatile oil prices: Deora

New Delhi, June 29 (UNI) Petroleum and Natural Gas Minsiter Murli Deora has said the UPA Government has undertaken strong measures to protect consumers from the impact of soaring global oil prices and keeping economy on track.

The Government is committed to protecting the interest of the common man by ensuring equitable burden sharing of the impact of rising global oil prices,'' the Minister said while addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee (PCC) meeting here late last evening.

He further said the oil prices in the international market continue to be volatile.

''Though the international prices have increased, thereafter there has been no revision in the domestic prices of these products,'' he added.

He further said that the estimated under recoveries of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) will be about Rs 50,000 crore during 2007-08.

Notifications inviting Expressions of Interest (EOI) have been issued for laying a number of pipelines for transportation of natural gas across the country to meet the energy requirements of various sectors including fertilisers, power, etc, Mr Deora said.

GAIL proposes to lay the Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline, Kochi-Kanjirrkkod-Mangalore/Bangalore pipeline, Dabhol-Bangalore pipeline, Dadri-Bawana-Nangal pipeline and hainsa-Gurgaon-Jhajjar-Hissar pipeline.

Notifications have also been issued inviting EOIs for Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL) laying Chennai-Tuticorin pipeline and Chennai-Mangalore-Bangalore pipeline.

Mr Deora said region-wise meetings with Chief Ministers of the concerned states is planned to resolve the issues relating to Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme throughout the country.

The first meeting in this series was held in Srinagar on June 19 to resolve the issues of hilly states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

The second meeting was held on June 23 at Kochi in respect of the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. As a result of these efforts Karnataka Government issued the notification on June 23 reducing the VAT on ethanol from 20 per cent to four per cent.

In some of the states, there are certain bottlenecks, like restrictions on inter-state movement of ethanol and levy of high rates of duties/taxes thereby rendering the procurement of ethanol unviable for EBP programme.

Overall, the five per cent EBP Programme applicable throughout the country is progressing well, he added.

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