Subsidised LPG rate hiked by Rs 2 per cylinder; ATF price cut by 3.7 per cent

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price was on Thursday cut by 3.7 per cent while subsidised LPG rate was hiked by Rs 2.07 per cylinder, the seventh increase in cooking gas price in six months.

ATF or jet fuel price was cut (rpt) cut by Rs 1,881 per kilolitre (kl), or 3.7 per cent, to Rs 48,379.63 per kl in Delhi. The reduction comes after two rounds of hikes, the last one being on November 1 by a steep 7.3 per cent.

While, the rate of subsidised LPG rate was hiked and it will now cost Rs 432.71 per 14.2-kg cylinder as against Rs 430.64 previously.

This is the seventh increase in price since July when the government decided to go in for a small hikes of up to Rs 2 per bottle every month to cut down its subsidy outgo.

LPG rates were last hiked on November 1 by Rs 2.05 per cylinder. Prior to that rate was hiked on October 28 by Rs 1.5 per cylinder on account of hike in commission paid to dealers.  Rates went up by Rs 2.03 per cylinder on October 1 to Rs 427.09.

The government had earlier this month decided to take the diesel route for eliminating subsidies on LPG and kerosene.  Diesel price was deregulated in November 2014 after the previous UPA government effected 50 paise hikes every month to eliminate subsidies.

The near Rs 2 per cylinder hike in LPG every month is also aimed at achieving the same purpose. In case of kerosene, the government has allowed state-owned oil companies to raise the price by 25 paise a litre every fortnight for 10 months.  The 9^th hike in kerosene, since July, was effected on Thursday.

A litre of kerosene now costs Rs 17.51 in Mumbai. Delhi has been declared a kerosene-free state and no subsidised PDS kerosene is sold in the national capital.

The price of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG), which consumers buy after exhausting quota of 12 bottles of 14.2-kg each per household in a year, was hiked by Rs 54.5 to Rs 584.  The hike comes on the back of Rs 37.5 hike on November 1.

Oil firms revise rates of ATF and cooking gas on 1^st of every month based on oil price and foreign exchange rate in the preceding month.