Kirit Parikh panel recommends trade parity pricing for diesel

30 Sep 2013 Evaluate

The high level panel formed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in May this year, to break the impasse on the method of calculating the under-recoveries suffered by oil marketing companies (OMCs), led by former Planning Commission member Kirit S Parikh in its draft report has suggested continuation of the current system of calculating revenue losses on the basis of trade parity or the weighted average price of import and exports of diesel with an increase in its retail price by Rs 4 per litre “immediately” and the remaining subsidy recovered from consumers through a monthly price hike of Re 1 per litre.

The panel has said that the existing trade parity pricing, be continued until diesel price is market based. The finance ministry has been demanding that diesel pricing be changed to export parity from the existing trade parity, where the 2.5 percent customs duty is added on to 80 percent of the sales volume and charged from customers even though it is not paid to the government. However, it said that import to export parity ratio may be reviewed and revised on annual basis based on the actual export ratio of diesel by the Indian refineries, excluding exports by refineries in the special economic zones.

The panel has also declined finance ministry's demand for doing away with import parity pricing of kerosene and LPG and has said that one-fourth of the current subsidy, amounting to Rs 100 per cylinder, should be passed on by increase the price of subsidised domestic LPG before March 2014 and the balance passed on at the rate of 25 percent in each year during the next three years. Thereafter, the price of domestic LPG should be decontrolled. For PDS Kerosene it has recommended that price of PDS kerosene be increased by “at least Rs 2 per litre now and another Rs 2 per litre from April 2014 and thereafter revise its price in line with the growth in per capita agriculture GDP”.

The Oil Ministry will view the merits of the report after which a draft Cabinet note will be floated for inter-ministerial consultation before taking a proposal to the CCEA. Though, the recommendations could be a boon for the ailing government owned oil companies and the government itself, which is finding it difficult to control its fiscal deficit, but lots of political compulsions are likely to come in its way ahead of the ensuing general election next year.

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