Asia Bizz: The prices of petrol and diesel are set to rise again in India later this week, following the rise in international crude oil prices. The price hike in the Asian nation has been deferred at the moment, but the rise in petrol and diesel prices is expected to come into affect within the next few days
The (EGoM) Empowered Group of Ministers, which is headed by India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was supposed to discuss and implement the price hike on Wednesday, but the meeting was later deferred without citing any reasons whatsoever. Reports state that the ministers were in talks of increasing diesel prices by Rs. 3-4 a litre, as well as domestic LPG rates by a whopping Rs. 20-25 per gas cylinder. While, the expected increase in petrole will be up to Rs. 3 per litre.
Despite the meeting being deferred, state-owned oil firms will raise the price of petrol, probably by Thursday-Friday night. The price of petrol has not been revised since January 2011, while the cost of diesel remain unchanged since November 2010.
India’s main oil and gas companies Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are reportedly losing out crores of rupees in revenues on account of the current low prices. The price hike in India will help the 3 companies to cover their losses in their 2011-20012 fiscal.
