Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 50 paise a litre each on Sunday, taking the total increase in the prices to Rs 3.70-3.75/litre since the resumption of price revisions from March 22.
Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 99.11/litre as against Rs 98.61 previously, while the diesel rate has gone up from Rs 89.87/litre to Rs 90.42, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.
The auto fuel prices vary slightly from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.
Prices had been on a freeze since November 4 ahead of the assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab — a period during which crude oil price soared by about $30/barrel (bbl).
This is the fifth increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month-long hiatus in rate revisions last week. On all the previous four occasions, prices had been increased by 80 paise a litre – the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was introduced in June 2017.The Congress and other opposition parties have criticised the government for the price rise, saying it has added to the burden on the common man reeling under general commodity price rise.
State-run fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) have together lost around $2.25 billion (`17,000 crore) in revenue between November and March third week, by keeping petrol and diesel prices unchanged despite a sharp rise in crude oil prices, Moody’s Investors Service had said on March 24.
Auto fuel prices in India had remained unchanged despite crude oil prices averaging around $111/bbl in the first three weeks of March 2022 compared to around $82/bbl in early November. “This implies that the costs for the state-owned refining and marketing companies are currently higher by around $29/bbl without any corresponding increase in revenue,” Moody’s had said. Based on current market prices, the oil marketing companies are incurring a revenue loss of around $25/bbl and $24/bbl on the sale of petrol and diesel respectively, it had added.
India pays for Russian LNG imports in dollars
India’s largest gas utility GAIL (India) continues to pay for the LNG it imports from Russia’s Gazprom in US dollars and will seek exchange rate neutrality in case payments are sought in any other currency such as Euro, two sources said. GAIL has a deal to receive 2.5 mt of LNG annually on a delivered basis from Russia’s Gazprom. (PTI inputs)
