The petroleum ministry will go to the Cabinet next month seeking a decision on reviewing petrol and diesel prices even though kerosene and LPG continued to be sold at a loss.
"It is true that margins on petrol and diesel have turned positive, but there are still huge under recoveries on kerosene and LPG," Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey told the Economic Editors Conference in New Delhi. He said fuel retailers -- IOC, BPCL and HPCL -- were making a profit of Rs 8.17 a litre on petrol and Rs 0.65 per litre on diesel, but were losing Rs 21.54 a litre on kerosene and Rs 330.28 per LPG cylinder.
"Overall, there still are under-recoveries," he said.
The three companies, in the first half of the current fiscal, posted a net loss of Rs 14,431 crore (Rs 144.31 billion). They will end this year with about Rs 1,10,000 crore (Rs 1,100 billion) revenue loss on fuel sales.
"Therefore, whenever government has to take a view, all these issues will have to be considered. No decision has yet been taken, but we are going to the appropriate Cabinet committee with a comprehensive picture for an appropriate decision," he said.
Pandey added Petroleum Minister Murli Deora had stated that a revision in fuel prices was under consideration and a decision will be taken in due course. "Revision does not necessarily mean a cut in prices. We will have to wait and see on which products a reduction will be effected, by how much and when," Pandey said. "The government will have to take a comprehensive view... What government will decide we cannot anticipate today," he added.
When asked if Deora has written a letter to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on scope for cutting petrol price by Rs 5 a litre and LPG by Rs 20 per cylinder, Deora said, "I have no reply to this question. What I have written to some one or not is not under discussion."
Before the Editors' Conference, Pandey had stated that the minister had informed him that no letter had been written to Sonia Gandhi.
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