Steep hike in prices of petrol, diesel and LPG likely after assembly elections

28 Feb 2012 Evaluate

Sharp rise in the prices of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders can be expected after the conclusion of the Assembly polls in the five States. With the volatile international crude oil prices exerting pressure on the oil companies’ balance sheets, the government may be forced to hike prices before the start of the parliament session on March 12.

Tensions between the United States and Iran coupled with latest European Union sanctions against Tehran have ignited the crude oil markets worldwide. The Indian crude oil basket touched a new high of $123 per barrel on February 27. However, the Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) has not been able to revise prices due to the crucial assembly elections in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

Even though petrol prices were deregulated by the government in June 2011, any change in them has to be approved by the EGoM. The prices, which are supposed to be recalibrated every fortnight, haven’t been changed since December 01, 2011 keeping in view the assembly elections.

The oil industry claims to have lost about Rs 900 crore since the last revision. Besides petrol, State-owned oil firms are losing Rs 12.77 per litre on diesel, Rs 30.21 a litre on kerosene and Rs 378 per 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder. Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are losing over Rs 410 crore a day on sale of diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene.

With the government’s subsidy bill threatening to go out of control and the OMCs suffering huge losses, pressure is mounting on the government to bring in a sharp hike in prices of petrol, diesel and LPG. If it comes through, the hike in petrol prices is expected to be around Rs 4 per litre, as per government officials. Cooking gas prices too could go up by Rs 70 per cylinder and diesel by about Rs 5 per litre.

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