State-owned fuel retailers are incurring losses of about Rs 20 per litre on petrol and roughly Rs 100 per litre on diesel as pump prices remain frozen for nearly four years despite a surge in global oil prices, the government said on Thursday, signalling there is no immediate plan to raise retail fuel rates.
At a news briefing on developments in West Asia, Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary in MoPNG, said international prices of crude oil and LPG rates have been very volatile, yet the government has not increased prices.
Crude which was USD 70 per barrel last year, averaged over USD 113 this month, she said. “There is a huge increase... inspite of that the government has not increased prices and the effort of the government has been to keep the prices stable.” Retail petrol and diesel prices have remained frozen since early April 2022, a period during which oil prices rose in some months and fell in other times. When prices fell, state-owned oil firms made handsome profits, which they used to set off losses when rates rose.
Sharma said that despite the increase in oil prices after the war in West Asia, the government has not increased retail pump rates. “The effort of the government has been to keep the price stable.” The sharp increase in prices in international markets, on which India is 88 per cent dependent to meet its oil needs, has led to PSUs incurring under-recoveries on petrol and diesel, she said.
Under-recoveries, the difference between retail price and the desired rate if domestic prices were aligned with import parity, vary on daily basis. “Under-recovery may be around Rs 20 per litre on petrol and around Rs 100 a litre on diesel,” she said. She, however, hastened to add that government interventions so far have been to provide stability in terms of price and it will continue to do that.
The government last month cut tax on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 a litre each so as to ensure that “the burden of high oil prices are not transferred to consumers”, she said. Alongside, the government also imposed a tax on fuel export so as to “motivate” refiners to prioritise domestic sales, she said.
On cooking gas LPG, she said while the Saudi CP -- the benchmark for LPG pricing -- has increased 102 per cent between July 2023 and April 2026, rates in the country have fallen 17 per cent. “Data is speaking for itself and the effort of the government is also visible,” she added.
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