State-owned fuel retailers, including IOCL, HPCL and BPCL have stopped absorbing a cut of Re 1 per litre, mandated by the Government, in their marketing margins on the sale of petrol and diesel.
It may be mentioned that on January 2, 2019, in Guwahati, the gateway to the Northeast, the petrol (gasoline) price was Rs. 68.03 per litre and the diesel price was Rs. 62.91 per litre.
Indian Oil Corp. Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) have done so reportedly due to a steep fall in global crude oil prices, a livemint report said quoting people familiar with the matter.
The report published by livemint on Wednesday quoted HPCL chairman MK Surana as confirming the development.
The report quoted Indian Oil chairman Sanjiv Singh as saying: “We are not recovering any of the losses.”
However, the report claimed that queries sent to BPCL remained unanswered at the time of updating the story.
In the month of October last year, Union Finance Ministry of India had cut its production tax on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 per litre and also asked IOCL, HPCL and BPCL to reduce their marketing margins by Rs 1 per litre to give relief to the consumers of a surge in global crude oil prices at the time.
But the prices of petrol and diesel have slumped in recent weeks allowing the marketing margin to be restored to its earlier levels, said a person familiar with the matter.
The report also quoted two Union Finance Ministry officials as saying, in October, oil marketing companies (OMCs) were told to gradually recover the reduction in marketing margins if crude prices fell.
One of the officials said: “Now that the oil prices have come down they are now able to compensate the losses.”
It has been reported that the state-owned oil refiners of India, who are also its main fuel retailers, will not be passing on all the benefits of the drop in crude prices to consumers as they want to recoup the margin hit they have been bearing.
The report claims that this has reflected by the relative difference in the recent declines of Indian fuel prices and global benchmarks.
As per media reports, the price of Brent crude, Singapore gasoline and Arab Gulf Diesel have declined between 37 pc to 40 pc since October 1 while Indian petrol and diesel prices have been reduced by about 17 pc to 18 pc.
The official said, the loss of margin should be full reversed by the March-end of the current fiscal year.