Petrol price up by Rs. 2.95

Sharp rise in international crude prices

December 14, 2010 08:40 pm | Updated November 28, 2021 09:04 pm IST - New Delhi

With the BPCL hiking petrol prices, a motorcyclist buys additional fuel, in Hyderabad on Tuesday evening. Photo: P. V. Sivakumar

With the BPCL hiking petrol prices, a motorcyclist buys additional fuel, in Hyderabad on Tuesday evening. Photo: P. V. Sivakumar

State-run oil major Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) on Tuesday raised petrol prices by Rs. 2.95 a litre.

The hike would come into effect from Tuesday night. This would be the sixth hike after petrol price deregulation in June this year.

The other two oil marketing companies (OMCs), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) are likely to follow suit only from Thursday night.

The move to hike prices, immediately after the conclusion of the winter session of Parliament, was due to the sharp hike in the crude oil prices in the international market, said Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.

“We had no alternative but to hike prices as the international crude oil prices have risen sharply. Still, we have tried to minimise the impact on the people. There is no hike in the prices of kerosene oil and LGP cylinders, mostly consumed by the poor and the common man,” Mr. Deora said. The state-run OMCs on November 9 raised the price of petrol marginally by Re. 0.32 a litre. They were told to hold back further hike till the end of the Parliament session.

Since June 26, when petrol price was deregulated, the IOC, the BPCL and the HPCL revised rates six times as crude oil jumped from $73-74 a barrel at the time of deregulation to the current levels of $90 a barrel.

The IOC, the HPCL, and the BPCL are currently losing Rs. 4.17 a litre on the sale of petrol. A similar hike in diesel rates is likely to be considered by an Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, that is likely to meet on December 22.

The Indian crude oil basket stood at $89.34 a barrel on Monday. It averaged $88.47 a barrel in December as against $79 at the time of the last hike on November 9.

On diesel, the three firms are losing about Rs. 5 a litre.

Despite the hike, the OMCs are likely to end the fiscal with close to Rs. 65,000 crore revenue loss on the sale of diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.