Petrol price up by Rs 4, diesel hiked by Rs 2

New Delhi: The United Progressive Alliance Government raised fuel prices on Wednesday with Petroleum Minister Murli Deora taking the decision after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.

Petrol price was hiked by Rs 4 a litre while diesel got costlier by Rs 2 per litre. The prices will come into effect at 12 hrs IST on Thursday.

"The prices of kerosene and cooking gas are not being changed," Deora said, adding the government will continue to incur a subsidy of Rs 15.26 per litre and Rs 92.96 per cylinder on these two fuels, respectively.

Deora also offered a ray of hope saying when oil price go down in international market, the benefit will be passed on to the consumers.

Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey said that the decision has been taken as price of crude oil have risen to $70 per barrel from $40 per barrel in December 2008.

“We have estimated burden on the government is over Rs 30,000 crore. This will be met by the government,” said Pandey

Public sector oil companies have seen losses on fuel sale widening to about Rs 170 crore per day on firming global oil prices and may end the fiscal with over Rs 49,000 crore in revenue loss.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum have seen losses on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene inflating from Rs 130 crore to about Rs 170 crore per day, an industry official said.

The three firms calculate the desired retail selling price of the four government-controlled products on 1st and 16th of every month based on average international oil rates of the previous fortnight.

The firming international crude oil prices, which are at a seven-month high of about $73 per barrel, widened losses on petrol to Rs 6.94 per litre from Rs 6.08 per litre in the second half of June.

On diesel, the losses have soared to Rs 4.11 a litre against Rs 2.96 previously.

Oil companies have already increased Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices by 6 per cent.

The hike comes on back of over 12 per cent hike on June 15. ATF price on that day were raised by Rs 3,949 to Rs 36,252 per kilolitre in Delhi.

International crude oil prices have firmed to a seven-month high of $72 per barrel on hopes of demand revival in the US.

(With agency inputs)