DETERMINATION OF PRICES OF LPG
Shri Ram Naik, Minister
of Petroleum & Natural Gas, informed the Lok Sabha while replying
to a question that oil refining, being a continuous process industry
with multi-product output from crude oil viz. Petrol, diesel,
naphtha, kerosene, LPG, etc., separate costing for various products
is not done. The country imports about 70 per cent of its crude
oil requirements which is refined at 16 different refineries and
the crude originates from about 18-20 countries including crude
oil of different quality and at varied prices. It is, therefore,
difficult to arrive at the cost of production of any single product.
The Minister also
informed the House that the retail selling prices of domestic
LPG in the country has not been revised for the last one year
keeping in mind the sensitivity of the product. In fact, the oil
PSUs have been incurring under-recoveries on the sale of LPG.
Shri Naik further
informed the House that LPG availability in the country has been
substantially augmented during the last four years by releasing
about 3.5 crore connections. This is equal to those released in
the previous 40 years, taking total LPG customers to 7 crores.
The connections are now available across the counter through out
the country on demand and the second cylinder can also be obtained
without any difficulty.
Replying to a supplementary
question, the Minister said that broadly there is no shortage
of LPG in the country and assured the House to take immediate
remedial measures to take care of any localised shortage. He urged
the members that the details of such specific areas may be made
available to him. Reiterating the Government’s mission to make
kitchens smoke-free, which he termed would be a boon to the housewives,
Shri Naik emphasised that Government has launched a drive to cover
the households in rural areas. For this purpose, 5 kg. cylinders
were launched and an in-principle decision has been taken to open
one LPG Distributorship at every Block Headquarter in the country.
