Auto analysts are expecting that the prices of petrol will come down by around Rs. 1 per litre from midnight of March 15, 2013. Reportedly, with this move, the state run oil companies will pass the advantage of reduced international prices of gasoline, which happened during the last fortnight. Meanwhile, the same companies are looking ahead to increase the prices of diesel by Rs. 0.5 to 0.6 per litre according to the government’s plan, which came in January 2013 to surge the diesel prices in small amounts till its subsidy is completely wiped out.
According to sources, the cut in petrol prices is expected to appear in daylight on March 15 by the Indian Oil Corporation, which is India’s largest fuel retailer with more than 50 per cent share in the market. For the same, the Chairman R S Butola and Director (Finance) P K Goyal are anticipated to mark their presence in National Capital on the respective day for discussion on the pricing with their rivals, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum. Experts believe that following the announcement of price cut by Indian Oil Corporation, the other two companies will then follow the same path after maintaining a gap of few hours with a difference of around 2 to 3 paisa in their actual rates. It must be noted that the difference in rates is done to avoid the claim of cartelization from private refiners like Essar and Reliance.
A thing to note here is that the reduction in petrol prices has come after two rounds of hike in just 1.5 months, starting February 2013. On February 16, the petrol prices were surged by Rs. 1.50 per litre, which was then followed by an increase of Rs. 1.4 per litre on March 2. Furthermore, both of these price increases are exclusive of state sales tax. At present, petrol is sold at Rs. 70.74 per litre in the National Capital. Since the last revision in petrol prices, the prices of petrol have significantly come down from $ 131 a barrel at around $ 120 per barrel. The value of rupee has also appreciated marginally against the strong US dollar at Rs 54.11.
