New Delhi: The ministerial panel on fuels under finance minister Pranab Mukherjee deferred a decision on either allowing oilmarketing companies to set pump prices in tune with international trend or simply raise petrol and diesel prices to reduce losses of state-run companies, ostensibly because key members could not attend the meeting on Monday.

Cooking gas may flare up by Rs 100/cylinder & kerosene Rs 6
Rajeev Jayaswal NEW DELHI

AN increase in prices of auto and cooking fuel appears imminent next month as an official proposal that favours freeing retail prices of petrol and diesel and increase in prices of kerosene by Rs 6 a litre and cooking gas by Rs 100 per cylinder seems to have a wide support in the government.

AN empowered group of ministers chaired by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to meet on June 7 to take policy decisions on pricing of petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas.

Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI: In what could prove to be a setback to India's growth in the power sector and reflects poorly on its performance, the Planning Commission has reduced the power generation capacity addition target by over 20 per cent to 62,374MW for the 11th Plan (2007-12) from the original 78,577 MW, in its mid-term review.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Thursday said the government should dismantle the administered pricing of fuel, as it would keep prices low even when commodity prices start rising.

The planning commission on Friday claimed that decontrolling fossil fuel prices would help tame inflation, deflating the contrary general perception, The Commission panel's deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said: "It (decontrolling fuel price) will not flare up the inflation. I just think that it is not sustainable to have pricing, which are not in line with the world prices."

APANEL headed by Kirit Parikh has suggested a clean break from the past, with market-linked prices for auto fuels and a sharp increase in the prices of kerosene and cooking gas, testing the willingness of the Manmohan Singh government to grapple with a problem that has defied a solution for decades.

Panel Wants Decontrol, Govt May Settle For Rs 3 Petrol Hike, Re 1 For Diesel

A Planning Commission study has said prices of natural gas sold by the public sector companies Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) should be aligned to the price of $4.2 per million British thermal units (mBtu) decided by the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) for Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).

THE blanket ban on foreign companies and individuals from certain countries to undertake hydel projects in sensitive border areas may soon be lifted.