Agencies, New Delhi In the wake of rising crude oil price and depreciating rupee, petrol price has been increased by Rs 1.40 per litre to Rs 70.46 a litre , which would come into effect from midnight tonight. ‘’Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has decided to effect the changes in MS retail selling prices w.e.f midnight of 1st/2nd March’13 upwards by Rs 1.40 /litre (excluding VAT),’’ IOC said in a release issued here.
Petrol prices were last revised upwards by Rs 1.50/litre on February 16. At present, non-branded petrol is being sold at Rs 69.06/litre in Delhi, Rs 76.59/litre in Kolkata, Rs 75.89/litre in Mumbai and Rs 72.17/litre in Chennai. IOC said the price increase has been necessitated by two factors—the global crude prices have increased from 128.57 dollars/bbl to 131 dollars/bbl since the last revision; and the rupee has depreciated from Rs 53.43 to Rs 54.15 per dollar during the period.
‘’Keeping this trend in view, we do believe that there should be opportunities to revise the prices downward as and when the international MS prices soften,’’ the release added. In addition to loss on sale of petrol, state-run oil marketing companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL are suffering under-recovery on sale of diesel of Rs 11.26/litre, kerosene of Rs 33.43/litre and LPG of Rs 439 per cylinder. Projected under-recovery of the Corporation on three sensitive products is expected to cross Rs 86,500 crore during the current year, it added.
