No plans to make fuel prices uniform: Govt

Government has no plans to make the retail selling price of petrol and diesel uniform across the country, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel informed Lok Sabha on Thursday.

In a written reply in the lower house of Parliament, he said petrol is costliest in Bangalore at Rs 50.62 a litre and is cheapest in Puducherry at Rs 41.91 a litre. Bhopal has the costliest diesel at Rs 35.55 per litre while Jalandhar sells the cheapest at Rs 30.08 a litre.

Bhopal also has the highest rates for domestic cooking gas at Rs 328.75 a cylinder, while Chennai has the lowest rates of Rs 288.10 per cylinder.

Though the basic ex-storage point price of petrol, diesel and domestic LPG are uniform across the country, the retail selling prices vary from place to place due to different rates of state sales tax/VAT,

freight from nearest refinery and other local levies like toll tax, octroi and entry tax, he said. "Presently, there is no proposal for making the retail selling prices of petroleum products uniform all over the country," he said. IOC:

To another question, Patel said Indian Oil Corporation was pursuing export of petrochemical products, particularly purified Terephathelic to Pakistan. The Proposal involves transport of PTA by road and rail in containers across Wagha Border.

"In March 2006, government of Pakistan had permitted Pakistan State Oil to import 10,000 tons, Group II Lube Oil Base Stock from IOC on a one time basis," he said.