Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) A fortnight after giving consumers relief for the first time in almost three years, India’s fuel retailers again cut petrol prices Wednesday — by 65 paise a litre, excluding state taxes and levies — bringing further succour to vehicle owners.

The price cut, effective midnight Wednesday, move may help the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in a price rise debate in parliament in the ongoing winter session of parliament as opposition parties are likely to highlight the high cost of petrol during the debate.

IndianOil Corp (IOC), the largest of the three state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs), said a fall in global crude prices was the reason it could bring down prices of petrol.

“The review of international oil prices and exchange rate of the relevant fortnight brings out a further downtrend in international oil prices and a further weakening of the exchange rate,” the company said in a statement.

“The combined impact of both the factors is an over-recovery of Rs.0.65 per litre. It has, therefore, been decided to revise the MS (motor spirit) prices downward by Rs.0.65 per litre (excluding state taxes and levies) with effect from Dec 1,” the company said.

Meanwhile, IOC expressed concern over the rupee depreciation to Rs.51.50 to a US dollar.

“However, current trend is of increasing international MS (motor spirits) price and further deterioration of exchange rate. These developments are being monitored closely and will impact the directions of prices in the next pricing cycle,” the company said.

Petrol prices were slashed on Nov 15 by Rs.1.85 per litre. The cut was the first after January 2009.

The three state-run oil firms including IOC, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum review motor spirit prices on fortnightly basis and based on the review, fix prices for the next fortnight.

The current and new petrol prices in the four metros are as under:

Old New

New Delhi Rs.66.42 Rs.65.64

Kokata Rs.70.84 Rs.70.02

Mumbai Rs.71.47 Rs.70.65

Chennai Rs.70.38 Rs.69.55

OMCs, however, claim they continue to incur under-recoveries on account of selling diesel, kerosene and cooking gas below their international prices. All the three fuels are still regulated by the government, compared to petrol which is sold at a de-regulated price.

“While international prices of MS has declined during the period under review, international prices of the three sensitive have shown a sharp uptrend consequently having a further adverse impact on under-recovery on sales of these products,” IndianOil Corp (IOC) said.

The under-recoveries on diesel has increased from Rs.10.17-to-Rs.12.03 per litre. The under-recoveries on kerosene and cooking gas also went up from Rs.25.66-to-Rs.28.56 per litre and Rs.260.50-to-Rs.286.50 per cylinder, respectively.

“The increase in under-recovery on sensitive products would increase the per day under-recovery of OMCs from Rs.384 crore per day during fortnight of 16-to-30.11.11 to Rs.452 crore per day from Dec 1,” the company added.

The projected total under-recovery of IndianOil for 2011-12 (excluding petrol) is estimated to be over Rs.71,000 crore and for the OMCs together would be around Rs.1,30,000 crore.