TN may move SC on diesel dual pricing

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The dual pricing policy, under which the price of diesel for bulk consumers has been hiked steeply by Rs 11 per litre, would add a burden of Rs 750 crore to the state transport undertaking, the chief minister said.

The Tamil Nadu government has asked the Centre to withdraw deregulation of diesel and dual pricing policy for bulk consumers.

Terming the decision as "ill-conceived, ill-timed", chief minister J Jayalalithaa in a letter to the Prime Minister today said, “If the Centre does not hear the state’s request, then the government of Tamil Nadu has no other option, but to approach the Supreme Court for a remedy.”

The dual pricing policy, under which the price of diesel for bulk consumers has been hiked steeply by Rs 11 per litre, would add a burden of Rs 750 crore to the state transport undertaking, she added.

The letter said the dual pricing, along with a staggered increase of 55 paise per litre per month for retail consumers appears “to be one of the many short-sighted measures taken by the central government, which is going to further increase the burden on the common people and aggravate their misery."

The chief minister added that the additional burden for the transport corporation from the diesel price hike would be absorbed by the state government.

"Given the opacity of the pricing policies of the oil companies, the serious doubts expressed about the methodology by which the so called under- recoveries by the oil companies are estimated and the profitability of the upstream oil companies, I really wonder whether there is any justification for the partial decontrol of retail diesel prices and the huge increase in the price for bulk consumers. In normal marketing practice, it is the bulk consumers who enjoy discounts.”