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| Petrol prices rise for tenth time since June '10 |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Nov 04, 2011, 00:54 IST |
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Petrol has turned costlier by Rs 1.80 to 1.91 per litre as oil marketing companies increased prices to wipe off their losses on the decontrolled fuel. This is the fourth such increase in current financial year and the tenth since price was decontrolled in June last year. Prices at IndianOil outlets already went up, while the other two companies — Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum — will revise prices from tomorrow midnight.
The new price of petrol is Rs 68.64 per litre in Delhi (Rs 1.80 increase), Rs 73.15 in Kolkata (Rs 1.87), Rs 73.81 in Mumbai (Rs 1.89) and Rs 72.73 in Chennai (Rs 1.91).
The hike, companies say, has been implemented to pass on the impact of a depreciating rupee that has resulted in a higher cost. The last time petrol price was hiked was on September 15, when companies raised prices by a steep Rs 3.14 per litre.
“We were losing around Rs 1.50 litre,” said an official at Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s biggest oil marketer. “The increase of up to Rs 1.91 has been done after factoring the local levies. The increase takes care of the entire loss on petrol.”
While a weakening rupee alone triggered the last hike too, the currency slipped further by 3.34 per cent since the hike in September, pressing companies to go for another round of raise.
Even since the government decontrolled petrol price 17 months ago, petrol prices have moved up over 43 per cent — to Rs 68.64 per litre in the national capital. During the same period, diesel prices, which is still regulated, has increased just twice by 8.37 per cent to Rs 41.29 per litre. Currently, the companies are losing over Rs 8.58 on a litre of diesel, Rs 25.66 on per litre kerosene and Rs 260.50 on a domestic LPG cylinder.
Though petrol was deregulated in tune with the Kirit Parikh committee report, the government is yet to take a call on its suggestion for deregulation of diesel.
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