LPG can be sold at 'more economical rates' if international price comes down: Govt

Union Budget can extend LPG subsidy of Rs 200 for Ujjwala beneficiaries for one more year.

If international price of fuel comes down from its current price of USD 750 per metric tonne, domestic LPG can then be sold at "even more economical rates," the Centre told Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The day international price is determined by a "variety of factors" and "one of the analysis I read said that in a few years time it will all be thing of the past because there will be so much gas available," Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said in the Lower House.

"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," he added.

The Minister was replying to questions of the members who wanted to know why the cost of the domestic gas cylinders is not being reduced.

He said 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," he 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," he added.