The government has been trying hard to avoid hike in fuel prices for some time now. However, after meeting leading petroleum companies’ officials, Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan confirmed today that the fuel price hike is around the corner. The cabinet will discuss the hike tomorrow and the decision will be taken in a few days. The price hike may be up to Rs 10 per litre for petrol and Rs 5 per litre for diesel.
Crude oil has reached $135 per barrel, threatening oil companies to go bankrupt. All major oil companies are already racking up huge losses. The impact of rising price of crude oil is so big that the fuel price hike alone won't suffice. The petroleum ministry is also asking for no custom duty on crude oil and a reduction on import duty and excise duty on petrol and diesel.
Condition of the oil companies can be understood by the fact that all major oil companies including Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum are losing approximately Rs 450 crore every day. As per the companies, the ideal prices should be Rs 66 per litre of petrol, Rs 59 per litre of diesel, Rs 655 per cylinder of LPG and Rs 42 per litre of kerosene.
We're as unhappy as you are about the impending price hike, but when we think about the enormous losses that the oil companies are incurring, we think that it is better we accept the hike. After all, our current fuel prices were set way back when crude was $100 a barrel.
