Indian Oil Corporation said on Wednesday it is losing Rs 74 crore (Rs 740 million) per day on selling fuel below the cost. IOC chairman Sarthak Behuria said the company was selling petrol at a loss of Rs 4.60 per litre and diesel at Rs 2.33 a litre.
Besides, it loses Rs 15.46 per litre on kerosene and Rs 158.78 per domestic LPG cylinder as the government has not allowed them to revise retail prices.
"Our under-recovery (revenue loss) on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene is about Rs 74 crore per day. For the full year, we anticipate Rs 23,000 crore (Rs 230 billion) under recovery if (international) crude oil prices are to stay at current levels," he said.
State fuel retailers IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum together lose about Rs 140 crore (Rs 1.4 billion) per day on sale of the four fuels.
Petroleum secretary R S Pandey, however, ruled out raising fuel prices in the near future.
"The international oil rates are discomforting but I think we should wait for them to stabalise before deciding."
