New Delhi, Sept 15: Reliance Industries, country's largest LPG producer, will be spared from footing the Rs 7200 crore bill for the one year freeze in LPG and Kerosene prices despite rising cost. Instead, public sector oil retailers - Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum - and LPG and Kerosene producers - Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India, Gail and standalone refineries - have been asked to share the Rs 7200 crore bill for 2003-04, a senior Government official said.
"Reliance produces LPG from crude oil purchased at market price while ONGC and Gail extract LPG from natural gas which is priced way below the international prices," Petroleum Secretary B K Chaturvedi said.
The private sector firm, which sell 2.4 million tonnes of LPG annually to the state-run retailers will be paid import parity price, he said. Bureau Report