Barely hours after petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily permitted oil marketing companies to set diesel prices, the retailers grabbed the opportunity. Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) hiked diesel price by 45 paise excluding taxes effective January 18, 2013. While the base hike in diesel price being 45 paise, it would lead to an increase of 51 paise in Delhi after including local VAT. New rate for diesel now stand at Rs 47.66 a litre.
However, in a bit of relief to the common-man, petrol prices, which were only earlier this week hiked by 35 paise, will come down by 25 paise per litre. Meanwhile, the base rate cut on petrol was 25 paise; it translates into a reduction of 29.75 paise in price in Delhi to Rs 67.27 a litre.
In a bold reform, the government has planned similar monthly hikes in future to cut record subsidies. This was coupled with a decision to charge bulk consumers like defence, railways and state transport undertakings market price which is almost Rs 10 a litre more than retail selling rate, to save an estimated Rs 12,907 crore in annual subsidy. Although price of petrol is purely market-determined, diesel still remains under government control, even though oil firms now have the freedom to make little changes in the price.
According to Indian Oil, the hike in diesel price will lead to reduction in under-recoveries by Rs 3,400 crore till March 2013. Meanwhile, based on the current prices and volumes, the decrease in the under-recoveries on annual basis on HSD (diesel) shall be approximately Rs 15,000 crore for OMCs as a whole.
However, as a sweetener to the bitter pill, besides slender petrol price reduction, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh bowing to public pressure raised the cap on subsidised LPG to nine cylinders per household from six.
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