04 July, 2008, PTI/Madrid; business-standard.com: India will in October review retail fuel prices after it gets a clear picture of the dent that high international crude prices will leave on revenues of state-run oil retailing firms in the first half of the current financial year. At the June Cabinet meeting that decided to raise petrol, diesel and domestic LPG prices, it was agreed that we will take stock of the situation in October, Petroleum Secretary MS Srinivasan said at the 19th World Petroleum Congress here.
On June 4, petrol price was raised by a record Rs 5 per litre, diesel by Rs 3 a litre and domestic LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder. This hike together with cut in Customs and excise duties only marginally offset the Rs 2,45,000 crore projected revenue loss at that time.
"We do not expect any price revision between now and October. We will review the situation in October and take steps deemed fit by the government to address the scenario," Srinivasan said.
The last round of price hike has pushed headline inflation to over 13-year high of 11.42 per cent. Crude prices which were then $135 a barrel have climbed to a record $145 a barrel today.
While Rs 2,11,400 crore is only the projected revenue loss something that the finance ministry feels is inflated, the October review would base its decision on the actual revenue loss figures for the first half of the current fiscal.
The average price (of Indian basket of crude) at the time of June 4 decision was $123. It is now $128, he said.
For the current financial year, Srinivasan predicted the country's crude oil import bill will jump to $110-120 billion from $67.988 billion of the previous year. India in 2007-08 imported 121.672 million tonnes of crude but this year the quantity will substantially rise following commissioning of Reliance Petroleum's 29 million tonnes a year export-oriented refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat.
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