Petroleum secretary GC Chaturvedi on Wednesday said the government is keeping a close tab on petroleum prices considering strong inflationary conditions. The three state-run oil-marketing companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL will review petroleum products prices on Thursday. There is possibility of revision in price of petrol and aviation turbine fuel (ATF). At present, government is not mulling any rise in price of diesel or domestic cooking gas.
Oil marketing companies review petroleum product prices every fortnight. The average Indian basket of crude oil for the last fortnight (Aug 16-31, 2011) was recorded at $ 107.24 per barrel. The Indian crude basket reported an average of $ 108.79 per barrel on Monday. On Wednesday, Indian rupee fell to a near two-year low against the US dollar. For every fall in rupee against dollar, the state-run refiners loose nearly Rs 9,000 crore in the complete year.
“Currently, there is a difference of Rs 2.62 per litre of petrol between its retail price and desired price. In the coming fortnight, desired increase in price of petrol would be Rs 3.14 per litre. However, I cannot comment today (Wednesday) if petrol prices would be revised or not,” PK Goyal, director (finance) at India's largest oil marketing company IOC told Financial Chronicle.
Oil secretary Chaturvedi said the government is aware of the under recoveries from diesel which stands at Rs 6 per litre now compared with Rs 4.67 earlier. But, raising prices at present could further add to current inflationary conditions.
“The government control of pricing cannot be a long-term perspective. Till decontrol happens, we will keep it as close to the international prices as possible,” Chaturvedi said at the Offshore India, Unconventional Oil & Gas meeting in Mumbai.
According to the oil ministry, OMCs are currently incurring daily under-recovery of Rs 228 crore on the sale of diesel, kerosene and domestic LPG. Raising prices can help perk up the bottomlines of public sector oil companies and help government reduce its subsidy burden, but is likely to add to the already high inflation.
In parallel, an empowered group of ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet for second time to discuss oil subsidy issue in New Delhi on Thursday. Chatruvedi has clarified that revision of diesel price is not on agenda to be discussed by eGom September 15. The second eGoM meet on oil subsidy is likely to discuss the proposal to restrict number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders to targeted population.
Oil marketing companies review petroleum product prices every fortnight. The average Indian basket of crude oil for the last fortnight (Aug 16-31, 2011) was recorded at $ 107.24 per barrel. The Indian crude basket reported an average of $ 108.79 per barrel on Monday. On Wednesday, Indian rupee fell to a near two-year low against the US dollar. For every fall in rupee against dollar, the state-run refiners loose nearly Rs 9,000 crore in the complete year.
“Currently, there is a difference of Rs 2.62 per litre of petrol between its retail price and desired price. In the coming fortnight, desired increase in price of petrol would be Rs 3.14 per litre. However, I cannot comment today (Wednesday) if petrol prices would be revised or not,” PK Goyal, director (finance) at India's largest oil marketing company IOC told Financial Chronicle.
Oil secretary Chaturvedi said the government is aware of the under recoveries from diesel which stands at Rs 6 per litre now compared with Rs 4.67 earlier. But, raising prices at present could further add to current inflationary conditions.
“The government control of pricing cannot be a long-term perspective. Till decontrol happens, we will keep it as close to the international prices as possible,” Chaturvedi said at the Offshore India, Unconventional Oil & Gas meeting in Mumbai.
According to the oil ministry, OMCs are currently incurring daily under-recovery of Rs 228 crore on the sale of diesel, kerosene and domestic LPG. Raising prices can help perk up the bottomlines of public sector oil companies and help government reduce its subsidy burden, but is likely to add to the already high inflation.
In parallel, an empowered group of ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet for second time to discuss oil subsidy issue in New Delhi on Thursday. Chatruvedi has clarified that revision of diesel price is not on agenda to be discussed by eGom September 15. The second eGoM meet on oil subsidy is likely to discuss the proposal to restrict number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders to targeted population.
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