The price basket of crude oil that India imports has crossed an all-time high of 110 dollars a barrel, widening losses incurred by state-run firms on fuel sales to over Rs 500 crore per day.
The Indian basket of crude oil was at 110.34 dollars per barrel on Tuesday, a 75 per cent jump over last fiscal’s lowest price of 62.91 dollars per barrel recorded on May 9, 2007.
Officials said the Indian basket of crude oil has averaged 103.87 dollars per barrel in April, up from 99.76 dollars a barrel average in March. In 2007-08, it had averaged 79.25 dollars per barrel.
Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum were till last fortnight losing about Rs 450 crore a day on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene. This has now widened to Rs 500 crore.
The official said oil firms currently lose Rs 11.80 a litre on petrol, Rs 17.51 on diesel, Rs 316.06 per LPG cylinder and Rs 25.23 a litre on kerosene as they are being forced by the government to sell fuel below cost so that inflation remains under check.
With the Indian basket of crude staying above 100 dollars a barrel mark, the Petroleum Ministry has projected a revenue loss of about Rs 1,50,000 crore on fuel sales this fiscal.
This will be almost double of the Rs 77,304.50 crore revenue loss or under-recoveries projected on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene in 2007-08.