Prices of petrol, diesel may come down

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">new delhi: petroleum minister ram naik said on monday there are no differences in the government on the schedule for dismantling the administered pricing mechanism (apm) for oil sector from april 1 while indicating that prices of petrol and diesel may come down upon being freed from state control. "there are no differences anywhere.apm will be dismantled as scheduled," naik told reporters after a three-hour long meeting with finance minister yashwant sinha to sort out issues concerning dismantling of apm. refusing to divulge details of his discussions with sinha, naik said: "no decision (on any issue) has been taken. issues discussed today relate to budget and would naturally be addressed in the budget for 2002-03." decisions pertaining to reduction in subsidy on domestic cooking gas (lpg) and kerosene for public distribution system (pds), duty structure and pricing of controlled products would all be provided for in the budget, he said. "since the issues pertain to budget, i can, naturally, not discuss it with you." asked if there was a likelihood of reduction in prices of petrol and diesel upon their being linked to import parity, naik said: "it will be good if prices come down. don''t we all want prices to come down?" prices of petrol and diesel under the present apm regime had been fixed taking into consideration international crude oil prices of $24 a barrel. but international crude prices have slumped in the aftermath of september 11 incidents in the us. the average import price during the first 10 months was $22.49 a barrel. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">related stories:</span><br /><img src="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//666879-open//images//ticker.gif" alt="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//666879-open//images//ticker.gif" border="0" /> <a href="articleshow.asp?art_id=262361557">pm to decide on apm dismantling</a><br /><img src="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//666879-open//images//ticker.gif" alt="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//666879-open//images//ticker.gif" border="0" /> <a href="articleshow.asp?art_id=2141698816">govt to free petrol, diesel prices from apr 1</a><br /><img src="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//666879-open//images//ticker.gif" alt="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//666879-open//images//ticker.gif" border="0" /> <a href="articleshow.asp?art_id=689761">additional cess on crude oil likely</a> </div> </div>