Petroleum Minister asks oil companies to reduce petrol-diesel prices

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Sunday asked Oil Marketing Companies OMCs to cut the retail prices of petrol and diesel if the crude oil prices in the international market come down and also if OMCs under recovery come downPuri was talking to the media during a function to flag wave a CNGdriven boat race on the river Ganga hereThis function was organized as a runup to India Energy week which will take place next month in BengaluruOil marketing companies should cut down prices once international prices are stabilised and they have managed to recover underrecovery he saidIn laymans parlance underrecovery refers to selling fuel below the cost prices Oil Marketing Companies incurred a loss of Rs 21200 crore on account of selling petrol and diesel below the cost priceThough Oil Marketing Companies are free to revise product prices based on economics in practical terms political considerations are also important in the revision of pricesHardeep Singh Puri also claimed that prices of petrol and diesel have been under check despite volatile prices of the Indian crude basketAlso Read Anil Deshmukh bail Supreme Court to hear CBI appeal challenging Bombay HC orderPuri said One reason for keeping prices of petrol and diesel under check is the reduction in taxes The central government revised the taxes twice between November 2021 and May 2022 Prices of petrol and diesel have not been revised since May 22 2022 when the Finance Ministry cut Central Excise duty followed by a reduction in sales tax by many StatesHowever during this period on one hand prices of brent crude have come down to USD 88 a barrel now from a high of USD 139 in March on the other hand India is increasing imports from Russia Both of these have a combined impact on the overall fuel import bill but losses are still there which seems to be the reason why oil marketing companies are not able to cut the pricesA senior Oil Marketing company said We are earning a gross profit on petrol and it is in single digit However during the last 15 days due to cracks petrol profitability has been affected However diesel sale is still on gross loss and it is in doubledigitThe gross amount of loss or profit for the third quarter will be known once the oil market companies will declare their result in the coming daysThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever