News Desk: The UPA government may face heat once again from the opposition as it has given a nod to decontrol diesel prices. The government on Tuesday revealed its proposal on deregulation of diesel prices.


Informing the Parliament on Tuesday, the government said that the decision to deregulate the diesel prices has been taken in principle. However, there is no proposal at present to deregulate cooking gas LPG price in India.


Giving a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena added that the retail selling prices would be moderated to insulate the common men.


While petrol prices are determined by the oil companies, the prices for LPG, kerosene and diesel are fixed by the government, which results in high expenditure on subsidies, the minister said.


"In order to insulate the common man from the impact of rise in international oil prices and the domestic inflationary conditions, the government continues to modulate the retail selling price of diesel," Meena added.


The decision was taken two days after the government's chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu said that the country would witness few reforms in next six months including on subsidies, partial decontrol of diesel and FDI in retail.

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