NEW DELHI: Petrol prices breached the Rs 100-a-litre-mark in the capital on Monday after state-owned oil companies effected the fourth hike in retail fuel rates in 11 days, raising petrol prices by another Rs 2.61 to Rs 102.12 a litre to cut losses from selling auto fuels below market cost. Petrol price was last past Rs 100 in Oct 2021, when it had breached Rs 106.Diesel prices rose by Rs 2.71 to Rs 95.20 a litre. The cumulative increase in petrol and diesel prices in Delhi now stands at Rs 7.35 and Rs 7.53 a litre, respectively. Govt said the cumulative under-recoveries on petrol, diesel and LPG were now slightly below Rs 600 crore a day, indicating further hikes may be coming. After the first hike of Rs 3 a litre on May 15 amid the current geopolitical situation that disrupted energy supplies and triggered a global surge in crude prices, govt had said under-recoveries had declined 25% to Rs 750 crore a day.
Oil cos still losing Rs 600cr a day: Govt
In Mumbai, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman defended the price hike, saying it was a market-driven revision by oil marketing companies in response to soaring global crude prices. She said that govt had shielded consumers for 75 days or so by over Rs 1 lakh crore annually by slashing excise by Rs 10 per litre.A litre of petrol in Mumbai now costs Rs 111.21, while diesel is priced at Rs 97.83. In Chennai, petrol costs Rs 107.77 per litre and diesel Rs 99.55, while in Kolkata, petrol costs Rs 113.51 per litre and diesel Rs 99.82. The quantum of the hike varies as value-added tax structures differ across states.Sujata Sharma, the joint secretary in the petroleum ministry, said rising global crude prices had affected all countries, but the impact on India was lower because the losses were being absorbed by govt and oil companies.“Globally, the increase in petrol prices is 22% and diesel 27%, but in India it is much lower — 7.7% on petrol and 8.6% on diesel. Before the increase in prices, govt took all possible measures. It reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 10, and the impact on the exchequer is Rs 14,000 crore a year,” she said, adding that excise duty has been reduced by Rs 21 on petrol and Rs 24 on diesel since 2021.“Despite these steps, OMCs were losing Rs 1,000 crore a day which has come down to under Rs 600 crore after the hikes.”Justifying the hikes, Sharma said that the profit earned by the three state-run OMCs in the last financial year would be wiped out by the losses incurred in just one quarter of the current fiscal.
