Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy today ruled out an immediate hike in fuel prices, saying there is no such plan. Mr Reddy spoke to the media at an Indian Oil event in New Delhi.
Sources have informed NDTV that the hike in all fuel prices has been deferred by a week.
"It is my duty as a minister to bring out the facts in front of the Cabinet Committee of Political affairs…don’t know when the CCPA will take up the issue,” he said, adding that there is a need to reduce the under-recoveries of oil marketing companies.
This led to an immediate drop in the share prices of oil marketing companies, with Bharat Petroleum falling the most at 3 per cent. Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil also saw selling pressure. HPCL was down 2.75 per cent, while IOC traded 1.9 per cent lower.
Indian Oil chairman R.S. Butola, who was also present at the event, said oil companies were currently losing nearly Rs 6 per litre on petrol sales.
"There is a need to raise petrol prices. We are in consultations with our colleagues at other oil marekting companies and stakeholders," Mr Butola said.
There were reports on Thursday that oil companies were going to hike the price of petrol by as much as Rs 5, and that prices of diesel and kerosene, which are regulated, will increase next week.
State-run oil marketing companies are losing Rs. 550 crore everyday on under-recoveries as a result of higher crude prices in the global markets.
They make a loss of Rs. 17/litre on diesel sales, Rs. 32.7/litre on kerosene sales, and Rs. 347/cylinder on cooking gas sales every day.
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