Petrol prices raised by Rs 1.40 per litre

Oil-marketing companies (OMCs) have decided to increase petrol prices by Rs 1.40 per litre with effect from Friday midnight. With this, petrol price in Delhi would be Rs 70.46 a litre now.

The last price hike was on February 16. Between then and now, international petrol prices rose from $128.57 per barrel to $131 per barrel, which necessitated price revision, said an IndianOil Corporation (IOC) release. The rupee has also depreciated from Rs 53.43 to Rs 54.15 versus dollar in the same period.

According to IOC, international prices over the years have shown spurt during the first quarter of every calendar year. "They generally start levelling back during the second quarter. Keeping this trend in view, we do believe that there should be opportunities to revise the prices downward as and when the international MS (motor spirit) prices soften," it said.

Apart from loss on sale of petrol, OMCs are also suffering underrecovery of Rs 11.26 per litre on diesel, Rs 33.43 per litre on kerosene and Rs 439 per cylinder for LPG. IOC's projected under-recovery on three sensitive products is expected to cross Rs 86,500 crore and of the industry beyond Rs 1,63,500 crore during the current financial year.

Govt betrayed people: BJP
Reacting sharply to the manner in which petrol prices were raised, a day after the Budget was presented, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the Centre betrayed the people. They demanded an immediate roll back of price hike. "FM P Chidambaram presented the Budget yesterday in Parliament and the government decided a day later to hike the prices of petrol by Rs 1.40 per litre. This is a betrayal with the people of the country and BJP will not take this lying down," said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, BJP spokesperson.