A rise in global petrol prices and a weaker rupee has led to India’s public sector oil marketing companies losing their margin of 2c per litre of petrol over the last two weeks. The companies, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum, review their prices every two weeks. Though their businesses were performing well at their last price review on November 15, a recent spike in price has led to a quick erosion of profit.
The companies say that they don’t expect any help soon from the Government, which has the power to intervene and rejig market prices. While the country’s parliament is in session until December 20, intervention is thought to be unlikely due to a change in attitude from the Government since it chose to bring in decontrolling regulations in 2010.
None of the three public sector oil marketing companies have recorded an annual profit since the government introduced the decontrolling measures.