‘No Cut In Fuel Prices’: Government

The oil marketing companies incurred heavy losses when the prices of crude oil skyrocketed recently.

Fuel Prices: There is no proposal to cut petrol and diesel prices at present as there is high volatility in global crude oil prices, said the government on Wednesday. This was conveyed by Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri. He also dismissed media reports about a fuel price cut as “speculative”, saying the government’s top priority is energy availability.

The oil marketing companies, Indian Oil, BPCL, and HPCL incurred heavy losses when the prices of crude oil skyrocketed recently, said Hardeep Singh Puri adding that there are no discussions with oil marketing companies on fuel price cuts and they want stable and positive forward-looking situation in terms of pricing.

He pointed out that India was the only country where fuel prices had come down in recent months.

“In the South Asian countries, the prices of petrol and diesel increased by around 40-80 per cent. If you look at the Western industrialized world, the prices have gone up there, but in India, prices have come down,” Puri said.

“We are able to do it because of far-sighted and visionary leadership. Central excise duty reduction was done on two occasions, November 2021, and May 2022 and we carried that into 2023,” he added.

(With IANS inputs)