Crude business: Karnataka polls wipe out Rs 4 billion of OMC revenues

OMC margins plummet, both price hike or excise cut likely

With the electoral battle for Karnataka over, oil-marketing companies (OMCs) on Monday started recovering their revenue loss by hiking prices of petrol by 17 paise and diesel by 21 paise. The freeze on retail prices since April 23, however, meant that the OMCs had to let go up to Rs 350 million per day, according to a Business Standard analysis based on the average consumption of both fuels.
 
The losses increased gradually — a rough estimate shows the markets suffered a revenue loss of more than Rs 200 million per day in May, which for 19 days cost them