Govt raises petrol prices by Rs 7.54 per litre, first hike in last 6 months

24 May 2012 Evaluate

Petrol prices have been raised by a whopping Rs 7.54 litre with effect from May 24, taking the prices of petrol to Rs 73.14 a litre in the national capital. Following the hike, a litre of petrol will now cost Rs 78.16 in Mumbai, Rs 77.53 in Kolkata and Rs 77.05 in Chennai. This is the first hike in the last six months and has been necessitated due to the increase in prices of global crude oil. Nonetheless it is the steepest price hike in petrol price ever.

As was expected, the hike in prices has seen sharp reactions from the common people and from other political parties. However, the markets have reacted positively to the increase and the rupee is also expected to appreciate. Most analysts are now expecting that this hike will be followed by an increase in the prices of diesel, LPG and kerosene as well.

Justifying the government’s move the Oil Minister, S Jaipal Reddy stated that the depreciation in rupee had necessitated the increase in fuel prices. This was because when the rupee falls by one against the dollar, oil companies suffer losses to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore annually. The rupee has seen a substantial fall in the last fortnight and has touched an all time low of Rs 55 against the dollar. Last year the rupee was around Rs 46 to a dollar. This has translated in to a loss of Rs 72,000 crore, this year for oil company’s just on account of rupee depreciation.

The losses on petrol are over and above Rs 512 crore per day that oil firms lose on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene. Diesel is currently sold at a loss of Rs 15.35 a litre, kerosene at Rs 32.98 per litre loss and oil firms lose Rs 479 on sale of every 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder.

The price of petrol has been deregulated but continues to be under government supervision. Even though global prices had shot up, the government had kept the oil companies from raising prices because of political considerations. Since the three oil PSUs were suffering heavy losses they had threatened the government that they would go ahead and increase the prices of petrol if they were not compensated for the loss. As a result the government has announced subsidies to the tune of Rs 38,500 crore for the last fiscal of FY12.

The price is expected to have an inflationary impact on the economy and the Planning Commission is of the view that the impact will be a one time price adjustment and will not have a cascading effect. The retail inflation (Consumer Price Index) for April was 10.36%, up from 9.38% in February. The inflation based on movement in wholesale prices (WPI) moved up to 7.23% in April from 6.89% in March.

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