The continuous spurt in global crude oil prices and delays on part of the government to announce a bail out package for the three state-run oil PSUs has resulted in a further increase in the projected revenue loss of these firms on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene.
The projected revenue losses of Indian Oil (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) have further mounted from the earlier Rs 2,25,040 crore to Rs 2,46,000 crore in 2008-09.
The oil industry has now pinned all its hopes on the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on Wednesday morning for a favourable decision on the fuel price hike issue. The expected price hike, sources said, will be in the range of Rs 2-4 a litre in the prices of petrol and diesel.
Indian Oil, which controls roughly half of the fuel market in the country, alone stands to lose Rs 1,33,000 crore. ?We are losing Rs 392 crore per day on fuel sales,? an IOC official said, adding that the daily loss for the three firms together would be over Rs 725 crore. The three firms were losing Rs 580 crore a day till last month.
?We are still discussing the issue and a Cabinet meeting is scheduled for tomorrow,? external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event on Tuesday. He, however, refused to comment any further on the Cabinet agenda.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi have already met four times in the last week to discuss ways to tackle rising oil prices. But no consensus has been arrived as yet.
The three oil firms, which till last week, were losing Rs 16.34 a litre on petrol, are incurring a loss of Rs 21.43 on sale of every litre since June 1. Similarly, the losses on diesel have widened to Rs 31.58 per litre from Rs 23.49; while on kerosene, they have jumped to Rs 35.98 from Rs 28.72 per litre. Losses on LPG have also swelled to Rs 352.99 per 14.2-kg cylinder from Rs 305.90.
?IOC makes a daily loss of Rs 35 crore on sale of petrol and Rs 251 crore on diesel. The daily loss on kerosene is Rs 71 crore and that on LPG is Rs 35 crore,? he said.
IOC, BPCL and HPCL calculate import parity price of petrol and diesel on 1st and 16th of every month based on the average of the previous fortnight. LPG and kerosene prices are calculated once a month, based on monthly average imported price.
The basket of crude oil India buys averaged $124.02 per barrel in the second fortnight of May as against $115.09 in the first fortnight. The Indian basket was at $67 per barrel in February when petrol and diesel price were raised by Rs 2 and Re 1 a litre respectively.
Stocks of oil companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange surged at the close of the trade on Tuesday with hopes that the government will take a final call on raising retail fuel prices on Wednesday and the decision will give some respite to oil marketing.