Reeling under the pressure of the widening gap between domestic and global prices of petroleum products, Indian Oil Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation feel it is time the Government took a decision.
A disgruntled Indian Oil Corporation Chairman R. S. Butola said his company is making a strong case for bringing petrol under a regulated regime if a price hike was not possible.
The company has incurred losses on account of selling petroleum products at controlled prices. Though petrol has been deregulated since June 2010, an artificial Government control continues. The Government continues to control retail selling prices of diesel, PDS kerosene and domestic LPG, too.
Petrol prices were last revised in July. The current retail price of petrol is Rs 68.46 a litre (Delhi). During the first fortnight of August, oil companies lost Rs 1.37 a litre on petrol, which is expected to go up to Rs 3.56 a litre by next week.
On diesel, a regulated product, the companies lost Rs 12.13 a litre, PDS kerosene Rs 28.54 a litre and LPG domestic Rs 231 a cylinder.
“In the absence of any Budgetary support from the Government in the current quarter, no amount has been accounted towards under-recovery on sale of diesel, PDS kerosene and domestic LPG in the statement of profit and loss as revenue grants,” Butola said.
Consequent to the non-revision in retail selling prices in line with international prices, Indian Oil has suffered net under-realisation of Rs 17,484.92 crore (April-June 2011, Rs 7,672.59 crore) on sale of these products.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation has unmet under-recovery of Rs 7,321 crore. In addition, it is losing Rs 560 crore for not aligning petrol prices with the international market during the quarter, HPCL Director (Finance), B Mukherjee, said.
While the retail price of PDS kerosene has remained unchanged since June 2011 at Rs 14.83 a litre (Delhi), the price of domestic LPG stands at Rs 399 a cylinder (Delhi) since July 1, 2011.
Retail price of diesel, which was last revised in July 2011 at Rs 41.29 a litre, today stands at Rs 41.32 a litre (Delhi) after some changes in local levies.