PM told to cut subsidy on LPG soon

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 20: Petroleum Minister Ram Naik has made out a strong case before Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for expediting th...

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 20: Petroleum Minister Ram Naik has made out a strong case before Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for expediting the process of cutting down the subsidies on kerosene and LPG cooking gas.

Stating there would not be an immediate increase in the prices of diesel, petrol and LPG, Naik said his ministry also made out a case for getting some amount out of the Rs 8,000 crore that accrued to the finance ministry due to soaring international crude oil prices to reduce the oil pool deficit.

quot;The finance minsitry had targeted to mop up upto Rs 22,000 crore from the import of crude but due to the global oil prices firming up the ministry could mop up an additional of Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 crore,quot; Naik said.

Naik said that he had also approached the finance ministry for cutting down the crude import duty by five per cent which would avoid any increase in the prices of diesel.

quot;The finance minister is quite sympathetic to our proposal and in case this comes through there would not be any need for increasing the prices of diesel,quot; he said.

He said that the Prime Minister was also briefed about the tariff problems being faced by various oil companies and also the plans the petroleum ministry intended to take up in the coming years.

Earlier, speaking on the IOC foundation day ceremony, Naik said that IOC would contribute 0.5 per cent of its profits towards cultural development in the country.

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Besides this the company is also going to set up a corpus worth Rs 25 crore and invest Rs 10 crore annually which would be used for development of various ancient monuments in the country, Naik said.

Speaking on the occasion minister for youth and cultural affairs Anath Kumar completed IOC8217;s initiative and said that his ministry would extend all cooperation to the company in its endeavour to preserve the cultural heritage of the country.