Diesel price hiked by 50 paise/litre; petrol unchanged

New Delhi, Dec 1 – State-run fuel retailers on Saturday raised diesel price by 50 paise a litre, excluding state taxes, but left petrol rates unchanged for the ensuing fortnight.

 

This is the 11th increase for diesel since the government's January decision allowing the fuel retailers to revise pump price in small doses every month to wipe out to bring it at par with market rate.

 

The revised price would come into effect from the intervening midnight of Saturday and Sunday. In Delhi, the pump price would go up by 57 paise a litre, including state tax, to Rs 53.67 per litre. In Mumbai, the new price would be Rs 60.70 a litre against 60.08 at present.

 

The fuel retailers left petrol rates unchanged, even though the latest figures about the fuel's international rate and the rupee's exchange rate against the dollar necessitated indicated an increase of 25-30 paise a litre.

 

The firms revise petrol prices on the 1st and 16th of every month, based on trends in oil prices and currency exchange rate in the preceding fortnight. They had held the present price line even on November 16 review. Petrol prices were last revised on November 1, when it was cut by Rs 1.15 a litre.

 

With regular monthly increases the gap between the government-capped retail rate of diesel and its market price had narrowed down to about Rs 3some months back. But the rupee's fall against the dollar pushed up this gap to Rs 14.50 per litre in the July-August period.

 

The recent firming up of the Indian currency have once again trimmed this gap to Rs 9.99 a litre. Diesel rates have risen by a cumulative Rs 6.62 this year and oil minister M Veerappa Moily recently said he expected pump price to settle at market level in six months or so.

 

Besides diesel, fuel retailers are also losing Rs 36.20 per litre on sale of kerosene through ration shops and Rs 542.50 per of subsidized cooking gas cylinder.

 

The losses on kerosene and cooking gas have widened from Rs 35.77 per litre and Rs 482.50 per cylinder, respectively, in the beginning of the month.

 

IndianOil Corporation, the country's largest fuel retailer, expects to incur under-recovery (revenue loss) of around Rs 72,000 crore on sale of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas in 2013-14. Together with BPCL and HPCL, the other two state retailers, the total loss is pegged at Rs 139,000 crore this fiscal.

 

Source: TOI