Petrol will be cheaper by up to Rs 3 a litre from midnight tonight. This is a second price cut by public sector oil companies this month. In a statement here, Indian Oil Corporation said: “It has been decided to revise petrol prices downwards by Rs 2.46/litre (excluding State levies). The downward revision will vary from Rs 2.46/litre to Rs 3.22/litre depending upon the State taxes.”
On June 2, buckling under political pressure, the companies — Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum — had reduced the base price of petrol by Rs 1.68/ litre (excluding VAT/sales tax).
Though this cut is not very significant compared with the steep hike of Rs 6.28 a litre (excluding VAT/sales tax) on May 23/24, with this reduction the companies have almost rolled back the hike of last month.
Consumption drops
The high fuel price has also resulted in petrol consumption dropping by almost 4.6 per cent in May. Though the product is deregulated, political compulsions have been restraining the companies from revising prices.
During the first two months of the current fiscal, the oil companies have already accumulated losses of Rs 2,323 crore on petrol sales due to inability to revise prices in line with international crude oil prices and eroded dollar-rupee exchange rates prevailing during that period.