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Oil refiners BPCL, HPCL to cut losses
BPCl and HPCL expect their losses to come down following a rise in retail fuel prices after a nine-month freeze.
Indian state-run refiners Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd expect their losses to come down following a rise in retail fuel prices after a nine-month freeze, officials said.
India raised petrol prices by 9.2 per cent and diesel by 6.6 per cent late on Monday, bowing to pressure from refiners who have complained of losses because domestic fuel prices have not kept up with rising global prices.
The government also cut customs duty by a quarter to 7.5 per cent.
Bharat Petroleum expects losses to drop by about rS 60 billion over 10 months to March 2007 on the fuel price increase and duty cuts, a senior official said on Tuesday.
"The price increase has brought some relief but we need some more clarity on the import duty cut measures," Finance Director SK Joshi said on Tuesday.
He said Bharat Petroleum was losing Rs 5-6 a litre of petrol and diesel after the price increase and Rs 115 per cylinder of domestic cooking gas, prices of which were kept unchanged.
Hindustan Petroleum said its losses would drop by about Rs 20 billion due to the price rise. It has not worked out the savings from the duty cut, one official said.
