A Diwali bonus could be in the offing for consumers, with public sector oil companies considering a cut in petrol prices.
Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) on Friday said it was likely to take a decision on revising petrol prices by the end of this week or next week.
Though the conditions have been favourable for a reduction in petrol retail prices, a lot will depend on how the international product prices and currency (rupee fluctuation versus dollar) behaves. This was indicated by IndianOil Chairman, R.S. Butola, to reporters after the company’s second quarter board meeting.
Though, he did not indicate any price, market buzz is that it could be about Re 1 a litre.
On whether there are any indications of increasing the cap on subsidised domestic LPG from six to nine annually for every household, Butola preferred to remain non-committal, stating that “the capping of subsidised domestic LPG to six annually for every household continues (as of now)”.
Talking about the company’s second quarter performance, he said the Government compensation and upstream burden sharing has helped the company post a net profit for the second quarter of the current fiscal at Rs 9,611 crore. During the same period last year, the company had reported a loss of Rs 7,486 crore.
The company has now received a communication for compensation of about Rs 16,094 crore for both the quarters of the current fiscal.
Butola said the compensation was still short of Rs 29,729 crore.For the first half of the current fiscal, IndiaOil has reported a net loss of Rs 12,839.60 crore IndianOil’s gross refining margin for the quarter stood at $ 5.15 a barrel against $ 2.76 a barrel a year ago.