Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora on Tuesday indicated there will be no hike in petro products prices for now, though the finance ministry had rejected his demand to issue fresh oil bonds to counteract the losses of state oil companies due to global rising oil prices.
Deora met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to seek issue of oil bonds worth Rs.440 billion, amounting to 57.1 percent of the Rs.770 billion losses incurred by the state-run oil marketing companies during 2007-08.
“They are not ready for it. So, we have requested the finance minister to issue as much as possible,” Deora told reporters.
Queried if this will lead to the rise in domestic prices, Deora said the matter did not come up in the talks. He pointed out that the decision will have to be taken by the union cabinet.The central government currently issues bonds for 42.7 percent of the oil firms' losses, with another 33 percent coming from upstream oil companies.
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