Govt asks oil firms not to hike prices

With the possibility of the general elections in April-May this year, the government is learnt to have "sounded" public sector oil marketing companies not to raise the prices of diesel and petrol till the polls.

This is notwithstanding the increase in the international prices of crude which have gone up from an average of $ 29.87 a barrel last month to $ 31.42 a barrel this month.

Under normal circumstances, public sector oil marketing companies would have hiked the prices of petrol and diesel by at least Rs 1.50 a litre at the time of next revision on January 15-16, but now they may have to absorb the spurt in the international prices themselves, industry sources said.

The political leadership of the country is learnt to have taken a serious view of the two successive increases in the prices of petrol and diesel in the past one month.

The petroleum ministry may now ask the upstream oil companies""Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Gail India Limited""to share the marketing companies' burden on account of underrecovery from the sale of the two fuels.

ONGC and Gail are already sharing the burden of these companies. on account of underrecoveries from sale of domestic LPG and subsidised kerosene.