Petrol prices to be hiked by Rs 3?

Zeebiz Bureau

New Delhi: With losses widening to Rs 3.56 per litre, public sector oil firms have sought an immediate hike in petrol price fanning speculations that the fuel prices might be hiked by close to Rs 3.

However, the companies are unsure if the government will allow them to do so.

State-owned oil firms had last hiked petrol price by Rs 0.70 per litre with effect from July 24 and since then global oil rates have soared more than USD 12 per barrel.

"We are losing Rs 1.37 per litre on petrol based on the average price of benchmark gasoline rates in the Singapore market in the previous fortnight. But current calculations based on oil price this month will be about Rs 3.56 a litre," said R S Butola, Chairman, Indian Oil Corp, the nation's largest fuel retailer.

Petrol was deregulated or freed from government control in June 2010 but rarely have prices moved in tandem with the cost.

The oil firms had pressed for raising rates by Rs 1.37 a litre earlier this month but the government discouraged them from doing so in view of the monsoon session of Parliament.


Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has posted the nation's biggest quarterly net loss of Rs 22,451 crore after the government failed to compensate it for capping auto and cooking fuel prices.

Simultaneously, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), the nation's third largest fuel retailer, also posted a net loss of Rs 9,249 crore in April-June, the second biggest quarterly loss by a listed corporate.

With PTI inputs