Oil Pool Deficit Up By Rs 250 Cr A Month: Naik

The oil pool account deficit is going up an additional Rs 250 crore every month with the hardening of international prices of crude oil and the depreciation of the rupee vis-a-vis the dollar.

While the international prices of the basket of crude oil imported by India on September 28 -- a day prior to the price-hike -- was around $28.09 a barrel, it was quoted at around $ 30.62 on November 1.

Similarly, the dollar, which was quoted at Rs 46 at the time of the last hike in the domestic prices of petroleum products, has now moved up to around Rs 46.60.

Petroleum minister Ram Naik told Business Standard he had presented these facts to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who, as per his assurance to Mamata Banerjee, is said to be considering a possible revision in the prices of petroleum products.

Without conceding that he was against a rollback in the prices of petroleum products, Naik said there could not be any economic justification for this.