February 18, 2013: Fuel prices have been hiked, again. Coming on the back of poor vehicle sales in January 2013 and also Q3 of the current fiscal, the price hike in both diesel and petrol can only further dampen vehicle sales.
With effect from February 16, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country's largest fuel retailer by sales, increased the price of petrol per litre by Rs 1.50 and that of diesel by 45 paise per litre (see latest price chart below).
Petrol
Delhi Rs.69.06
Kolkata Rs.79.59
Mumbai Rs.75.89
Chennai Rs.72.17
Diesel
Delhi Rs. 48.16
Kolkata Rs.52.04
Mumbai Rs.54.26
Chennai Rs.51.23
Oil marketing companies are said to be currently suffering a revenue loss of Rs 1.23 a litre on retail sales of petrol. According to IOC, the revenue loss on sale of diesel per litre will now fall to Rs 10.27 per litre. It sees the FY13 revenue loss on subsidised fuels at over Rs 86,000 crore.
On January 18, the Centre had allowed OMCs to raise the price of subsidised diesel by 40-50 paise a litre every month and asked bulk buyers to pay market rates. While there was a downward revision of petrol prices by 30 paise to Rs 67.26 a litre in Delhi, OMCs hiked diesel price by 50 paise to Rs 47.65 a litre in Delhi.
In a statement, IOC said, OMCs have been "compelled to pass on the increase in petrol prices to consumers as they have already suffered losses on sale of petrol so far and trends in international oil market as well as rupee-US dollar exchange rate indicate continued strength. In fact, currently petrol prices are hovering around US$ 132.80 per barrel. The trends of international oil prices and INR-US$ exchange rate shall be closely monitored and the same shall be reflected in future price changes.”