LPG costlier by Rs 50 per cylinder,diesel prices up by Rs 3

The hike in prices will be effective from midnight on Friday night.

Biting the bullet,government on Friday hiked the price of diesel by Rs 3 a litre,kerosene Rs 2 a litre and cooking gas by a steep Rs 50 a cylinder to raise Rs 21,000 crores,and slashed customs and excise duties on petroleum products,sacrificing Rs 49,000 crore a year.

The hike in prices will be effective from midnight on Friday night.

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM),headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,met today and took the much-deferred politically sensitive decision,which Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy said was done to cut down on burgeoning under-recovery of oil marketing companies.

The under-recoveries which stood at Rs 1,71,140 crores will now come down by Rs 21,000 crores after today’s decision.

Today’s decision comes more than a month after petrol price was hiked by Rs 5 a litre.

Mamata opposes hike in fuel prices

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday opposed the fresh hike in fuel prices,saying it will put the common man in great difficulty.

“We do not support the repeated rise in fuel prices. This will put the common man in great difficulty. We have conveyed our view where it needs to be conveyed,” Banerjee,whose Trinamool Congress is a key UPA ally,said.

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Pointing out that fuel prices were already high,she said,”Kerosene and domestic gas are used by common people. The price of petrol was also recently hiked.”

The government should think “many times over” before hiking fuel prices,Banerjee said.