Indian crude oil basket price rose 23% between Dec 2021-March 2023: Govt

The price of the Indian crude oil basket, in rupee per barrel terms, rose by 23 per cent from December 2021 to March 2023, but compared to this, the increase in retail selling price of petrol and diesel in Delhi has only been 1.08 per cent and 3.40 per cent, the Parliament was told on Thursday.

Prices of petrol and diesel have not been increased by public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) since April 6, 2022, despite record-high international prices, Minister of State for Petroleum Rameswar Teli told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. The three OMCs, namely Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, have booked a combined loss of Rs 18,622 crore between April 2022 and December 2022, it said.

The three OMCs have also suffered huge losses on sale of domestic LPG where the price is monitored by the Government. To compensate these losses, the Centre has recently paid a one-time compensation of Rs 22,000 crore to them.

Prices of petrol and diesel in the country have been market-determined with effect from June 26, 2010 and October 19, 2014 respectively. Since then, the OMCs take appropriate decision on pricing of petrol and diesel, the minister said.

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