The Hindu Business Line : Indian crude basket moves close to $102

On Wednesday, the Indian basket closed at $101.97 a barrel. With the crude prices touching new heights, the Government said that it was closely monitoring the international oil prices and will continue to protect the interests of the consumers.

Global oil prices touched an intra-day high of $110.20 a barrel in Asian trade on Thursday on falling US currency.

The public sector oil marketing companies — Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation — are losing Rs 360 crore per day on sale of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and PDS kerosene.

The companies have to sell the petroleum products below the cost price.

Revenue loss

The revenue loss suffered on sale of petrol is Rs 9.68 per litre, Rs 12.21 per litre on diesel, Rs 20.95 per litre on kerosene and Rs 303.66 per 14.5-kg domestic LPG cylinder.

The under-recoveries suffered by the companies on sale of these products, which is estimated at Rs 71,808 crore during the current fiscal, may hover around Rs 73,000 crore.

Basket average

As per data available, the Indian basket has averaged $99.23 a barrel in March, against $92.37 a barrel in February.

“As passing on the entire impact of the increase in the oil prices to the consumers would have resulted in acute hardship to the common man, the retail selling prices of sensitive petroleum products have not been increased in tandem with the international oil prices,” the Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mr Dinsha Patel, informed Parliament.

The prices of petrol and diesel were increased with effect from February 15 by Rs 2 per litre and Re 1 a litre, respectively, although the movement in international oil prices warranted a much higher increase, he said.

Despite the steep increase in the international oil prices, the price of domestic cooking gas and PDS kerosene have not been increased.

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