The government has no plans to deregulate diesel and cooking gas prices by withdrawing subsidy on them, minister of state for petroleum R P N Singh confirmed on Tuesday.

Responding to Rajya Sabha's question whether the government had plans to deregulate diesel and kitchen fuel prices, Mr. Singh that that there were no such proposal for the time being.

In his written reply to Rajya Sabha, he added, "The public sector oil marketing companies also incur under-recovery on sale of diesel, PDS kerosene and domestic LPG as the prices of these products are being modulated by the government."

The junior minister's statement has surfaced amid economists' repeated warnings that the government can not check inflating subsidy bill and tackle the widening fiscal deficit unless it deregulates diesel price.

The minister himself admitted that the public sector oil marketing companies, including Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, and Bharat Petroleum, are currently losing around Rs 450 crore per day on sale of diesel, LPG and kerosene.

Meanwhile, indications have been made that the government would opt for an increase in the prices of diesel soon after the ongoing session of Parliament concludes on September 7. C Rangarajan, Chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, recently said in an interview that the potential hike in the prices of diesel could be announced within the next two months.