M A I N   N E W S

Petrol, diesel dearer in Delhi

NEW DELHI, April 1 (PTI) — The Union Government today raised the prices of petrol and diesel by 13 paise and 52 paise per litre, respectively, in the Capital to offset additional cost incurred in reducing the sulphur content in the fuel.

Announcing the price hike, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Mr Ram Naik, said desulphurised diesel and petrol were being made available in the national Capital territory (NCT) of Delhi from today as per the Supreme Court directives.

“The price rise would offset the cost incurred in desulphurisation of diesel and petrol whose sulphur content has been brought down from 0.25 per cent to 0.05 per cent”, he said at the inauguration of a piped gas supply here.

Mr Naik said the government would be spending around Rs 10,000 crore to upgrade refineries for the desulphurisation of crude and a beginning in this direction was made with the inauguration of Rs 760 crore desulphurisation facility of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum at Mumbai this week.

Desulphurised fuel would be available at 123 fuelling stations in Delhi initially and would be extended to the entire NCT in a month’s time, he said.

Low content sulphur fuel would be made available in the entire country from December this year, he said adding all oil refineries in the country would start producing low sulphur content fuel latest by October.

Stating that 70 per cent of the domestic petroleum products demand was being met by imports, Mr Naik said oil import bill reached an all time high of Rs 59,000 crore during 1999-2000.

The government, he said would accord high priority to the power and fertilisers sector for the use of gas in addition to extracting value added products such as LPG.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had allocated natural gas to the extent of 1.75 million standard cubic metres per day to the proposed 300 MW Pragati Power Project of Delhi, he said.

Besides, an additional allocation of 0.25 million standard cubic metres per day has been made to the existing power plant of Delhi Vidyut Board at Indraprastha.

Earlier, while inaugurating the pipe gas line, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit said compressed natural gas (CNG) had been made sale tax free in the state to promote the use of this more eco-friendly fuel for domestic and commercial purpose.

She, however, said against the requirement of 80-85 CNG fuelling stations in Delhi, 12 stations had been established.

The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Gangwar, said his ministry was pursuing an amendment in the Motor Vehicles Act with the Surface Transport Ministry to make the use of LPG as fuel in four-wheelers legal.