"The public sector oil marketing companies have not revised the price of petrol since December 1, 2011, in spite of sharp increase in international prices of petroleum products," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh told the Lok Sabha in New Delhi on Thursday.
The current retail selling price of Rs 65.64 per litre in Delhi is short of actual cost by Rs 8.60 a litre.
"There is an under recovery of Rs 7.17 per litre on sale of petrol," Singh said. After adding 20 per cent local sales tax or VAT, the desired increase in petrol price comes to Rs 8.60 per litre.
"In order to mitigate losses on sale of petrol, oil marketing companies have, inter alia, suggested to the government to either declare petrol as a 'regulated' product temporarily and provide cash compensation (subsidy) for under-recovery or to reduce the excise duty on petrol from Rs 14.78 per litre by an amount equivalent to the under-recovery on petrol," he said.
Singh, making the submission in a written reply to a question,
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