Tuesday, March 29 2005 15:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The State owned transport corporations in Tamil Nadu have decided to source five per cent of their diesel requirements from Reliance Petroleum Company as it has offered a discount of Rs 1,300 per kilolitre for six months from April one, the Transport Minister, R Viswanthan, informed the State Assembly today (March 29, 2005).

"This is only an experimental measure," he said.

"We are talking to public sector oil companies, which are offering a discount of Rs 200 per kilolitre to match this discount as we are their bulk consumers," he said.

On the left parties and PMK criticism of the Government's decision, he said no one would forget the fact that former Petroleum Minister E Ponnusamy, a PMK nominee in the Vajpayee Government, had allowed private companies in the oil sector.

Reliance Petroleum got the licence to sell petroleum products during his ministership, Viswanathan said.

He said the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam) also had no moral right to criticise the decision as Union Information Technology Minister and a DMK nominee in the Manmohan Singh Ministry, Dayanidhi Maran had recently stated that companies like Tatas and Reliance would play a major part in the communication industry, he said.

Even the Indian Oil Corporation was not a wholly owned company by the centre as 15 per cent of the Company's shares were being held by individuals. The centre also wanted to reduce its stake in IOC, he said.

The transport corporations had earned a profit of Rs 14 crore during the current fiscal and it would have been more if the centre had not hiked the diesel price, he said.