Union Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily underscored the need to raise prices of fuel in the domestic market given the huge payment for imports of crude oil into India.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the signing of a gas transmission agreement between GAIL (India) and Karnataka Power Corporation, the minister said India imports 73-75 per cent of crude oil and pays Rs 7 lakh crore for the imports annually.
He asserted that there was no proposal to roll back the hike in petrol and diesel prices. The government had effected only a small hike in the prices of petroleum products and consumers will have to bear it, he said.
Recently, OMCs raised prices of petrol by Rs 1.50 a litre and diesel prices by 45 paise per litre. The government had decided to deregulate diesel prices from state control and authorized oil marketing companies to raise prices in small quantity.
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