Petrol price cut

Oil companies have cut petrol rates by Rs.1.02 a litre because of a decline in international oil prices and a favourable rupee-dollar exchange rate, which also trimmed their revenue losses on diesel substantially.
“We have decided to cut petrol prices by 85 paise without tax from Tuesday,” an Indian Oil spokesman said. Effectively, petrol is cheaper by Rs.1.02 per litre in Delhi pumps.
This is the second petrol rate cut after state oil firms reduced its price by Rs.2.40 per litre on March 15, citing $5.3 a barrel fall in global crude oil rates.
There is about $1.5 per barrel gain in the average crude oil imported by domestic refiners since last price revision. Even global petrol rates have also dropped by over $3 per barrel. With almost stable rupee-dollar exchange rate, it was expected that oil firms would cut petrol prices soon, officials in the oil ministry said. The exchange rate is a crucial factor in determining fuel prices because India imports 80% of crude oil it processes.
International prices of petrol have gone down from $122.74 per barrel to $119.23 per barrel. Rupee-dollar exchange rate has also declined marginally from Rs.54.40 to Rs.54.28 during the same period. Following this, it has been decided to pass on the benefit to customers, IOC said in a statement.
IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum generally align pump prices of petrol with international rates on fortnightly basis.
Executives in IOC, BPCL and HPCL say that they decided to reduce petrol rates despite not recovering their old revenue losses on the fuel, which is about Rs.1,150 crore in 2012-13. Companies incurred the revenue losses because they held petrol rates when international oil prices soared.