Petrol prices may be raised says IOC
Source: Hueiyen News Service
New Delhi, April 25 2011:
Indian Oil Corporation on Monday hinted at an imminent hike in petrol prices, which have not been revised since January in view of elections in states like West Bengal.
"We would do it at the earliest possible," IOC Chairman Ranbir Singh Butola told reporters.
Butola said the IOC and other state firms had consciously decided not to revise rates of petrol to keep "the environment happy" .
The government had in June last year freed petrol pricing from its control and state-run firms had on as many as seven occasions changed rates in line with international prices before deciding in the second half of January to freeze rates.
"We live in an environment wherein if we take certain actions, the environment is going to turn against us," he said.
IOC is losing less than ' 7 per litre on petrol currently.
After including the local sales tax or VAT, the desired increase in price comes to about ' 7.50 a litre in Delhi.
"In our consideration, we decided to accept these losses for sometime," Butola said.
He said, IOC was losing ' 297 crore per day on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government-controlled rates.
"We are losing ' 18.11 per litre on diesel, ' 28.33 a litre on kerosene and ' 315.86 per 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder," he said.
The company's debt stood at about ' 53,000 crore at the end of March.
Retail price of petrol is benchmarked at USD 98 per barrel, the same for diesel is at USD 72-73 equivalent.
India buys on an average of USD 120 per barrel currently.
The government continued to control prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas with a view to control inflation.