Friday, September 16, 2011
The government owned oil firms have increased the petrol prices by Rs 3.14 per litre on the back of increase in the cost of importing crude oil following the depreciation of Indian currency at two-year low against the US dollar.So, how much do you now pay for a litre of petrol? Experts said the price in Mumbai would go up to Rs 71.92 from the current Rs 68.62 a litre. This would include additional state government taxes.
NEW DELHI: The government-owned oil firms have increased the petrol prices by Rs 3.14 per litre from the midnight tonight on the back of increase in the cost of importing crude oil following the depreciation of Indian currency at two-year low against the US dollar.
As per the government, the petrol price hike is an attempt to balance domestic rates with international prices as oil retailers are losing Rs 2.61 per litre or Rs 15 crore per day on sale of petrol.
State-owned oil firms like Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindsutan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) have witnessed losses of Rs 2,450 crore this financial year on selling petrol as the petrol prices were freed from government control in June last year.
On the current petrol rate, oil companies will increase another Rs 2,850 crore of loss on sale of petrol, taking the total loss on a fuel to Rs 5,300 crore for the full fiscal.
Apart from petrol, the three state-owned companies are losing Rs 263 crore per day on selling diesel which is being sold at a subsidy of Rs 6.05 a litre, kerosene at Rs 23.25 per litre and the rates of domestic LPG are under-priced by Rs 267 per 14.2-kg cylinder.
Earlier, the three oil firms had raised petrol price by Rs 5 a litre in May and the prices of diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene price were hiked in June by Rs 3 per litre, Rs 50 per cylinder and Rs 2 per litre.
