The government is not considering at present to raise petrol and diesel prices in line with the firming international crude rates, Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey said on Thursday.
"There is no proposal (to raise fuel prices) under consideration at present," he told reporters here. This is
despite state-run oil firms losing Rs 3.85 per litre on petrol, Rs 3.71 a litre on diesel, Rs 16.34 per litre on kerosene sold through PDS and Rs 201.88 per 14.2 kg domestic LPG cylinder.
"I cannot say what will happen in future, but right now we are not considering (a price hike)," he said. At the current rates, IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are projected to lose about Rs 163 crore a day or Rs 45,160 crore in revenues on fuel sales this fiscal, he added.
The government had earlier this year decided to make good all of the revenue loss on sale of domestic LPG and kerosene through issue of oil bonds, while the same on petrol and diesel would be mostly met by upstream firms like OIL and ONGC.