Petrol cheaper by Rs 5, diesel by Rs 2

In order to usher a feel-good factor dovetailed with the fiscal impetus package to be announced on Saturday, oil & petroleum minister Murli Deora has cut the price of petrol by Rs 5 per litre and diesel by Rs 2 per litre from Saturday, leaving cooking gas LPG and kerosene unchanged.

The interim decision to cut oil prices comes in line of falling oil prices.

Earlier, the government announced to cut petrol price by Rs 10 a litre, diesel by Rs 3 a litre and domestic liquified petroleum gas (LPG) by Rs 20 per cylinder due to fall in global oil prices.

State-run oil marketing companies (OMC) started earning extra returns from November with current month profit on petrol at Rs 14.89 a litre and on diesel at Rs 3.03 a litre. However, the three OMCs continue to lose Rs 17.26 a litre on kerosene and Rs 148.32 on a cylinder of LPG.

In June, the government raised the price of petrol by Rs 5 a litre, diesel by Rs 3 a litre and domestic LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder due to the high international prices of crude oil which touched a peak of USD 147 a barrel mid-July.