Wednesday, April 12 2006 10:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Petroleum Minister Murli Deora will meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram next week to discuss a package to bail out public sector oil firms that have been suffering huge losses on account of selling fuel on discounted prices.

"There was no conclusion in the last meeting. We will meet Finance Minister next week or so," Deora told reporters.

Oil marketing companies IOC, BPCL, HPCL and IBP are estimated to have lost over Rs 8 billion on selling petrol, diesel, LPG and Kerosene below the cost of production in the first fortnight of April.

In the last meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and PM's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan on March 13, Deora had sought a ten-fold hike in subsidy on LPG and kerosene on the lines of the assistance provided to food and fertiliser sectors.

After the first meeting, Singh had asked Chidambaram and Deora to come back within a month with a roadmap on implementation of the Rangarajan Committee recommendations after due consideration of the impact of a price hike on consumers.

Deora had then said that oil companies bore a subsidy bill of Rs 102.45 bn on LPG, Rs 143.84 bn on kerosene, Rs 122.84 bn on diesel and Rs 26.80 bn on petrol, while the budget provided only Rs 29 bn as subsidy for PDS kerosene and domestic LPG.

He had also pointed to the budgetary provision of Rs 24,200 crore for food subsidy and Rs 172.52 bn for fertiliser and demanded that a similar dispensation should be given to oil sector to make it a transparent mechanism.