The under-realisation of the three oil marketing companies - Indian Oil Corporation [Get Quote] (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation [Get Quote] (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation [Get Quote] (HPCL) - are projected to be Rs 2,11,400 crore (Rs 2114 billion) in the current financial year. Before prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas were raised and duties on crude oil and petroleum products were cut, the annual under-realisation was projected to be Rs 2,45,000 crore (Rs 2,450 billion).

IOC, which sells more than half the fuel consumption of the country, is projected to lose Rs 383 per day over the next fortnight, which is just Rs 9 crore (Rs 90 million) per day less than the Rs 392 crore (Rs 3.92 billion) it was losing before the fuel price hike.

"Prices of oil and oil products are rising and it will not be long before the gains from the fuel price hike and duty cuts are wiped off," said a senior IOC official.

IOC, BPCL and HPCL sell petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene at subsidised prices, due to which they incur under-realisation. The under-realisations are partly compensated by the government through oil bonds and the oil producers through discounts.

The price of the basket of crude oil that Indian refiners import hit a fresh high of $137.49 per barrel on Monday, the latest day for which data are available. The basket is following the price of US light sweet crude oil, which rose to a high of above $143 per barrel on Monday.

The average price of the Indian crude oil basket rose 7.28 per cent to $129.72 per barrel in June compared with $120.91 per barrel in May. In April, the average price of the basket was $105.77 per barrel.

The oil marketing companies calculate the under-realisation on petrol and diesel for a fortnight taking into account the average global prices of the fuel in the previous fortnight. Under-realisations on kerosene and cooking gas are calculated on the first day of every month.