Supriya Sule questions govt for not passing benefit of discounted Russian oil to people

New Delhi, Feb 9 (SocialNews.XYZ) NCP MP Supriya Sule on Thursday sought to know from the government as to why the benefits of purchasing discounted oil and gas from Russia could not be passed on to the consumers.

Sule raised the matter during the Question Hour in Lok Sabha, when Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri was replying to a question on cooking gas subsidy.

She said that India has been purchasing oil and gas from Russia at the cost of conflicting its relations with other nations globally, including the US.

Why then, the NCP leader wondered, the benefit of the discounted oil cost was not being given to consumers in the form of cheaper LPG cylinders.

Puri, in his response, said that despite the rise in India's domestic production of oil and gas in the previous fiscal as well as this financial year, India imports around 60 per cent of its requirements.

International prices of oil and gas are quite high, he said, adding that: "Now, the issue here is that oil marketing companies (OMCs) have not increased the price. They took huge losses on account of the fact that they were not able to pass through on to the consumers the international price at which they were imported."

The OMCs suffered a Rs 28,000 crore loss for which the government compensated them by making a one time payment of Rs 22,000 crore, the minister said.

In response to a related question by another member, he said that despite rising global prices of oil and gas, the government has kept its consumers insulated from high international prices.

Source: IANS