Diesel prices up by another 90p a ltr

With the Karnataka assembly elections over, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) raised the retail sales price of diesel by 90p a litre (excluding value added tax) on Friday, effective from midnight.

This is the fourth diesel price increase since January. The earlier rise was in March, by 45p a litre.

As on May 1, the OMCs were losing around Rs 3.8 on the retail sale of every litre of diesel. With on Friday’s increase, the revenue loss stands reduced to Rs 2.9 a litre. Indian Oil Corporation, in a press statement, said the rise covered the increase for the months of April and May.

In January, the government decided to allow the OMCs to raise the price of diesel price by 40-50p a litre (excluding VAT) each month, till they were able to neutralise the entire loss suffered on selling the fuel below market price. IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, the three state-run OMCs, had not raised the price after March due to the Karnataka elections.