OMCs slash petrol price by 2.46/litre; further cut of Rs 1 per litre likely

29 Jun 2012 Evaluate

The state owned oil marketing companies have slashed petrol price by 2.46 liters for the second time in a month, giving relief to the common man from the surging inflation. As a result, petrol prices in Delhi will cost Rs 67.78 per litre with effect from June 28 midnight as compared to Rs 70.24 a litre. This is the second reduction in rate following an Rs 2.02 cut in price per litre from June 3. The two price cut in petrol have wiped out more than half of the massive Rs 7.54 per litre increase in rates which was effected last month.

Even after the recent price cut there are still chances that there will be further cut of Rs 1 per litre as current revision was done at average International oil rate in the first fortnight of June, as global oil prices have fallen worldwide since June. Pursuant to which, in Mumbai, petrol price has been cut by Rs 3.10 to Rs 73.35 per litre, while in Kolkata it will cost Rs 72.74 a litre as compared to Rs 75.81 per litre currently. In Chennai it will be cut by Rs 3.07 per litre to Rs 72.74.

Earlier state-owned oil firms abandoned the practice of revising rates of petrol on 1st and 16th of every month and from now on will now do so on a random date, so as to prevent petrol pump dealers building positions. The current revision in price is done keeping in mind an average of $106.93 per barrel in international rate for gasoline, against which domestic petrol prices are benchmarked. Although Gasoline rates have fallen to about $97-98 a barrel, however rupee has devalued to Rs 57 against the US dollar from Rs 54.96 thus making imports costlier.

In response to the changes in petrol price, IOC had lost Rs 1,053 crore during the current fiscal as it is unable to raise petrol rates in line with the cost in the first two months of current fiscal. The three oil giants, which comprises of IOC, BPCL and HP, the total loss rises to Rs 2,323 crore on a commodity whose price was freed by the government in June 2010. Apart from this, the oil marketing companies are suffering high level of revenue losses on the three sensitive petroleum products, namely diesel, kerosene and cooking gas.

As a result of the last price revision in June last year, loss of revenue in diesel has gone up from Rs 6.13 per litre to Rs 10.20 per litre, for kerosene from Rs 24.16 per litre to Rs 30.53 per litre and for LPG from Rs 331.13 per cylinder to Rs 396.00 per cylinder. At this constant rate, it is estimated that revenue loss on sale of sensitive products during 2012-13 shall be around Rs 83,000 crore for IOC and Rs 151,000 crore for the entire industry.  Oil companies are continuously monitoring international oil prices and change in rupee-dollar exchange rates to assess their potential impact on selling prices in future. So price differential of crude and petrol shall also be under scanner in the coming days.

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