Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily appealed to the Opposition parties not to mix politics with promulgating the ordinance on food security.
The Union minister here on Friday strongly refuted the Opposition charges that the ordinance on Food Security Bill aimed to reap political benefits for the UPA government at the Centre in the next Lok Sabha elections.
“There are no possibility of early elections to the Lok Sabha to reap any political mileage over the ordinance,” he said.
On the issue of increasing LPG cylinder prices, Moily denied that the decision to hike the price was taken to benefit the private sector operators. “Over 90 percent of LPG cylinders in the country is handled by public sector undertakings and they stand to get benefit,” Moily said.
Reiterating his stand on achieving self- efficiency in the petroleum sector, Moily said it will benefit the nation by reducing the huge oil import of over US $160 billion by exploring petroleum products in the country.
“Of the 106 gas blocks discovered under the NELP project, only six are being explored for extraction of petroleum and gas since 1999,” he said.
According to him, the other countries are way ahead in exploring indigenous production.
Referring to the recent decision of increasing prices of both petrol and diesel, the Union Minister asked the state government to reduce sale tax on petroleum products to ease the burden on the consumers.