A moderate price hike for petrol and diesel is on the cards, probably, by the middle of January 2008, a senior official in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, said in New Delhi on Friday.
"Be prepared for a modest or moderate hike in the prices of petrol and diesel, after the meeting of the empowered Group of Ministers in the first week of January," M S Srinivasan, secretary, ministry of petroleum and natural gas, told
reporters.
"We are definitely not ruling out the hike. There will be hike," he said.
Asked to quantify the hike, Srinivasan declined to directly specify it but at the same time indicated that the hike would be just like the price of tea (Rs 2 to Rs 3).
To a question on the hike of LPG prices, Srinivasan said the government was providing domestic gas for about Rs 290, the actual cost of which was Rs 580.
