Thiruvananthapuram, March 26. Oil marketing companies in India hiked the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 0.8 (80 paise) today, as crude oil prices continue to be on the upswing in the global markets. This is the fourth price hike in India in five days. While diesel prices are currently hovering at around Rs 105 per litre in many states across the country, petrol prices range around Rs 94 for a litre.
Commenting on the price rise in India’s parliament, finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman said, the oil marketing companies in the country are feeling the heat of the global price rise and have no choice but to hike retail fuel prices. Impact of war is felt on all countries and supply chains have been disrupted globally, said finance minister. The price of benchmark crude variety Brent was $ 120 a barrel during the early hours of trade today.
Meanwhile analysts have pointed out that petrol and diesel prices in India have gone up by Rs 3.20 in the last five days There had been a four-and-a-half month hiatus in fuel price hike in the country, but that was broken on March 22 when the government hiked both petrol and diesel prices by 80 paise per litre and LPG prices by Rs 50, a cylinder.
Earlier, Indian media quoted Moody’s Investors Services which had noted that the state-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) together lost around USD 2.25 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold for more than 130 days..
Kotak Institutional Equities was quoted by media as saying, “Oil companies will need to raise diesel prices by Rs. 13.1-24.9 per litre and Rs.10.6-22.3 a litre on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of USD 100-120 per barrel,” According to CRISIL Research said a 9-12 per litre increase in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average USD 100 per barrel crude oil and Rs.15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to USD 110-120.
