Indian Oil Chairman, Mr R.S. Butola, hinted that the price of petrol may be raised coming April. The company is currently selling petrol at Rs 7.70 a litre lower than the market price.
But, a price hike may happen only if the request of the oil marketing companies (OMCs) to the government to reimburse losses on sale of petrol for the current fiscal is not met soon.
Mr Butola said that for the first nine months of the fiscal, Indian Oil’s under-recoveries on sale of petrol (which was deregulated in June 2010) were around Rs 1,250 crore. The losses in the current quarter are around Rs 750 crore, taking the company’s full year loss on petrol sales to around Rs 2,000 crore.
He said that for the combined losses for all the OMCs would be to the tune of Rs 4,500 crore for FY-12.
Asked whether the Government would once again bring petrol into a regulated regime, he remained evasive.
Meanwhile, the Petroleum MInister, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, acknowledged that there was a need to look at all petroleum product prices. On diesel price deregulation, the Minister said it was not being contemplated at present.