After being pulled up by the Election Commission, Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily in a hurriedly called press conference said that the Government is yet to take a decision on increasing the cap on subsidised cooking gas.
“Yesterday's statement by me should not be taken as an announcement. It was in response to media queries,’’ Moily told media persons in the national capital.
The Election Commission has sought an explanation from Moily and his Ministry for giving the filler just two days ahead of first phase of Assembly polls in Gujarat.
Moily today responded to V. S. Sampath, Chief Election Commissioner.
The Minister said in a letter to Sampath, seen by Business Line : “There has been widespread demand from all sections of the society particularly women including political parties across the party line, both inside and outside Parliament to increase the cap on supply of domestic LPG cylinders...It has been a consistent position of the ministry that review of the cap limit is under the consideration of the Government...The Government is yet to take a decision in the matter.’’
On Tuesday evening, Moily had said at a CII event that the Government would increase the cap on subsidised domestic cooking gas cylinder to nine from six at present for every consumer. The final decision would be taken by the Union Cabinet, he had said.
On Wednesday, Moily while trying to control the damage, said that the Government will follow Election Commission rules before a decision is taken.
“Nothing will be done behind the back of Election Commission,’’ Moily reiterated.
In order to cut down on the sky-rocketing subsidy bill, the Government in September had decided to cap the number of domestic LPG cylinders at six per consumer every year. This created an uproar across the nation because it was felt that six cylinders are not sufficient to meet the demand in a complete year.
On Tuesday, Moily had also said that he has held two rounds of discussion with his Finance counterpart P. Chidambaran on this issue.
Currently, the three public sector oil marketing companies, IOC, HPCL and BPCL, sells a 14.2-kg domestic cooking cylinder at a subsidised rate of around Rs 410 for every refill in New Delhi. And the non-subsidised refills are priced at more than Rs 900 for every refill.
According to rough estimates, at the current levels of prevailing global LPG prices, increasing the cap from six to nine cylinders may increase the subsidy bill by additional Rs 3,000 crore in 2012-13. And it would be close to Rs 9,000 crore in a complete year.