Govt To Take All Measures To Provide Relief To Consumers From High Fuel Prices: Hardeep Singh Puri

New Delhi, Mar 14 (PTI) Amid skyrocketing oil prices, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said the government will take all required measures in the coming months to ensure that consumers get relief from high fuel prices. 

India relies on overseas purchases to meet about 85 per cent of its oil requirement, making it one of the most vulnerable in Asia to higher oil prices.

Puri was responding to senior Congress leader Anand Sharma, who said it was agreed upon by the government and the opposition that petroleum products will be eventually brought under GST at the time of its introduction, and sought to know the progress been made in this regard. 

However, Puri said 'the government will in the coming months also take whatever measures we have to, to make sure that our consumer gets relief to the extent we can'.

Observing that oil prices had shot up from USD 19.56 cents a barrel to USD 130 a barrel at one stage and are currently hovering around USD 109 a barrel, the minister said it is emanating from a war-like situation, apparently referring to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

'But within that whatever space we have, vigour space, margin of persuasion, we should continue to exercise that in the interest of the Indian citizen and the consumer,' Puri told the Upper House. 

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)