The government has said that the country has the capacity to refine 26 crore tonne crude oil and urged citizens to stop believing in rumours and avoid panic buying. Addressing an inter-ministerial briefing on recent developments in West Asia held in New Delhi yesterday, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Sujata Sharma clarified that there has been no increase in the rates of petrol and diesel amid rumours of a petrol-diesel price hike.

Talking about PNG Expansion, she said that the government is focusing on it and issued a gazette notification in this regard whose main objective is to streamline application fees and approval timelines related to PNG connections across all states. she added that in the last approximately 25 days, about 2.5 lakh new connections have been provided. Additionally, around 2.2 lakh consumers have shifted from LPG to PNG.