Country?s largest oil refiner Indian Oil Corporation does not see any scope for cut in administered prices of fuel, even as crude oil has dropped to below $50 a barrel in the international market from close to $150 mark in July.
?I don?t think prices can be cut at this point. We are still having under-recoveries of Rs 30 per litre of kerosene and Rs 330 on a LPG cylinder. We have just started earning profits on the sale of petrol and diesel,? IOC chairman and managing director Sarthak Behuria said. The profit on sale of petrol is Rs 8 a litre and 70 paise a litre on diesel, he added.
?Nobody thought of us when oil was at a high level, but now when we have started earning some profits, there are talks for reduction in prices,? he rued. The outlook for the rest of the year is weak as ?interest rates are high, rupee has depreciated and borrowings have increased,? he added.
The government has already said prices of petrol and diesel would come down only when crude oil would stabilise around $55 a barrel and rupee would see a correction in its value against the US dollar.
Fuel retailers IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are expected to close their annual books with a loss of Rs 122,710 crore in 2008-09.