New Delhi: The domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) can be sold at "even more economical rates" if the international price of fuel comes down from its current price of USD 750 per metric tonne, the Centre told Lok Sabha on Thursday.
According to a report by news agency PTI, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri in Lok Sabha said the international price is determined by a variety of factors and one of the analysis, according to the minister is that in a few years, it will all be thing of the past because there will be so much gas available.
"But we will have to navigate the next two or three years through the kind of global situation as it exists today and as it is evolving," PTI quoted the Union Minister as saying.
The Minister made the remarks while replying to a question by DMK MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy who wanted to know why the cost of the domestic gas cylinders is not being reduced.
Denying the Opposition’s claims that the Centre was being insensitive to the prices of cooking gas, the Union Minister further said that the government is "sensitive" to the requirements of the consumers, particularly the most vulnerable.
"We did not allow the cost of domestic LPG to increase. The Saudi contract price went up by 330 per cent, yet the price increase was very small for the domestic thing," Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said.
"It would be ideal if the international Saudi contract price could come down from USD 750 per metric tonne, it would enable domestic LPG to be sold at even more economical rates," Puri added.
It is to be noted that in 2022, the government-run oil companies have increased the prices of domestic cooking gas by around Rs 150 per cylinder, a move severely criticised by the Opposition.