The Ministry Of Petroleum and Natural Gas has ruled out a hike in the prices of petrol and diesel in the near future even as the price of the Indian basket of crude oil continues to remain above $65 a barrel.
Sitharaman raised excise duty and road and infrastructure cess on the auto fuels by Rs 2 per litre each to raise over Rs 28,000 crore.
The new rate is based on a basic price of petrol, without including any taxes, refining cost or margin, of Rs 41.38 per litre, oil company officials said.
Every year, carmakers announce at the end of November or December their plans to increase prices of their vehicles by January.
Diesel prices are still under control with subsidies.
The movement of prices in international oil market and rupee-dollar exchange rate shall continue to be closely monitored
The opposition party vowed to hit the streets against the "Modi-made inflation" and run a people's movement over price rise.
With Brent crude oil prices dipping below $100 per barrel, petrol prices may be cut by Re 1 a litre and there is also a likelihood of first reduction in diesel rates in seven years.
The government may not revise petrol and diesel prices on April 1 as Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who has piloted a note on the issue for discussion in the Cabinet, will be out of the country at the next due date for revision in fuel prices
CNG price in the national capital and adjoining cities on Tuesday was hiked by Rs 0.50 per kg, while an imminent increase in petrol and diesel price has been put on wait-and-watch mode for more clarity on global oil prices. CNG price in NCT of Delhi has been increased to Rs 57.51 per kg from Rs 56.51, according to the information posted on the website of Indraprastha Gas Ltd - the firm which retails CNG and piped cooking gas in the national capital. Following the firming up of international gas rates, IGL has been raising CNG rates by up to 50 paise (Rs 0.50) per kg periodically. Prices have gone up by about Rs 4 per kg this year alone.
There has been a marginal dip in the petrol prices.
While the share of diesel vehicles sales in the overall passenger car industry has already fallen sharply, sales of CNG vehicles have shown a compound annual growth rate of 15.5 per cent over the past five years.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday announced to increase the policy repo rate by 50 basis points to 4.9 per cent, the second hike in five weeks aimed at quelling the inflation. The MPC vote was unanimous and has decided to keep stance withdrawal from accommodative, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in a press conference on Wednesday. The decision was taken during a three-day meeting of the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to review the interest rates in the country. The MPC voted unanimously to increase the policy repo rate by 50 bps to 4.90 per cent," Das said.
Sharing concerns of the common-man, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy said the decision to hike petrol price was taken by the oil companies, but the government is conscious of the 'sense of disturbance' caused by it among the consumers.
Ahead of the CCPA meeting, National Conference, a key constituent of the UPA, on Thursday suggested a "balancing act" while taking a decision to hike fuel prices and said the increase should be such that it does not put burden on people.
This is the third reduction in rates this month
Petrol price may be reduced by about Re 1 per litre while diesel price may be hiked by 40-50 paisa a litre from March 15/16.
Petrol price havock and Ash's Cannes outing
Petrol prices may be hiked by Rs 0.65 per litre this week if state-owned oil firms manage to get political approval for the move.
Petrol price was on Friday cut by Rs 2.42 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.25 a litre after an excise duty hike limited the benefit of global crude prices slumping to six-year low.
This will have an impact on inflation as everyone in the value chain passes on the costs.
Petrol price on Saturday breached the Rs 83 per litre-mark in Delhi for the first time in more than two years after a rally in international oil prices forced a 13th increase in rates in the last fortnight. Petrol price on Saturday was raised by 27 paise per litre and diesel by 25 paise, according to a price notification of oil marketing companies. Petrol price in Delhi rose to Rs 83.13 per litre from Rs 82.86. Diesel rates went up from Rs 73.07 to Rs 73.32 per litre.
According to reports, the price of petrol is expected to go up by Rs 5 and diesel by Rs 6.
The positive impact of the February 14 hike in petrol and diesal prices on oil marketing companies has been negated in just a fortnight with daily retail losses of these companies going back to over Rs 410 crore (Rs 4.1 billion) for the fortnight ended February 29. This is due to the steep rise in global crude prices in recent days. The retail prices were hiked by Rs 2 per litre for petrol and Re 1per litre for diesel.
The comparisons were available for 12 countries.
The movement of prices in the international oil market and rupee-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes
Petrol prices were freed from government control last month, resulting in a Rs 3.50 per litre rate hike in Delhi.
The relentless rise in international oil prices that last week touched an all time high of $135 a barrel has forced the government to mull options to save state-run firms, which expect a revenue loss of Rs 200,000 crore (Rs 2000 billion) this fiscal on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene.
A Rs 3-4 a litre hike in the price of petrol, which had been freed from government control last June, is also on the cards immediately after polling in the last phase of Assembly elections is completed on May 10.
Government-controlled oil-marketing companies (OMCs) have held back petrol and diesel price revisions for a week and are expected to continue doing so, ostensibly owing to political reasons. It appears that the Centre has informally conveyed to the three major OMCs to not revise fuel prices for the time being, two people in the government said. This informal directive follows the talks between the Centre and states on cutting taxes and bringing the auto fuels under the good service tax regime not fetching the desired results, so far.
Excise duty on petrol will remain at Rs 14.35 a litre and diesel at Rs 4.60 per litre.
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) may go with Oil Minister Murli Deora's proposal to free petrol prices from government control, which would trigger a hike of Rs 3.73 a litre, official sources said.
Those in favour of a 15-day cycle for price adjustment argue that oil firms already have a mechanism of calculating the desired fuel prices on 1st and 16th of every month.
Oil marketing companies on Friday cut petrol price by 32 paise, and diesel by 85 paise a litre with effect from midnight tonight.
About 50,000 truckers, most of whom are single-truck owners, could be thrown off their businesses due to the recent fuel price hike. "Already the vehicle supply on the road is higher than the requirement. "With the fuel price hike, fleet owners will look to cut down fleet size wherever needed and due to this, small single-truck owners could be at the receiving end," Ashok Goyal, managing director at BLR Logistiks (I) Ltd said. The company has a fleet of 500 vehicles of all types-small, medium and large with pan-India presence.
The government on Friday decontrolled petroleum prices to bring fuel costs in line with global oil rates after an Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, met for the second time in less than three weeks to decide on raising fuel prices. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee was absent again.
Oil companies on Wednesday slashed petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2, with effect from midnight tonight.
Congress said ATF prices have been reduced by 31% while petrol only 16%.
In the sixth such hike in three months, petrol price has been increased by a steep Rs 2.35 per litre and diesel by 50 paise per litre on falling rupee and firming international oil prices.
