The government on Friday ruled out an immediate increase in petrol and diesel prices in line with rise in international oil prices.
"There is no such proposal (under consideration). No, there will not be any hike (in fuel price) now," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told reporters in New Delhi.
Petrol is currently being sold at a loss of Rs 5.60 a litre and diesel at Rs 4.41 per litre. Public sector firms are also losing Rs 14.64 on sale of every litre of kerosene and Rs 163.75 per litre on every LPG cylinder.
"Our daily loss (on fuel sale) is Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million)," Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd chairman and managing director Ashok Sinha said.
Petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan also said there was no immediate need for raising fuel prices as appreciation in rupee against the dollar had helped reduce crude oil import cost and the widening gap between crude and petroleum products in the international markets was giving good refining margins.
"Refining divisions are making good profit and partly making up for the losses of marketing divisions," he said.
"Overall, we expect total under-realisation on fuel sale for the full fiscal 2007-08 at Rs 50,400 crore (Rs 504 billion). But for rupee appreciation and high refining margins, this should have been Rs 75,000 crore (Rs 750 billion)," he said.