Bad news for vehicle owners in India.

The Indian government has announced a major hike in the prices of Petrol and Diesel.

Petrol is now expensive by Rs. 4 per liter.

Diesel is now expensive by Rs. 2 per liter.

Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said that the hike was necessary to control the losses of oil companies in view of rising global oil rates.

This price hike was expected since some time now. However, the government had previously hinted that they might wait for the time being to let the market stabilize.

Some good news for the vehicle owners in the country.

Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora has announced that the government has no immediate plans to raise the price of petrol and diesel.

Deora said: “The international crude oil prices have gone up. We are just now watching the situation”.

The government wants to monitor the situation in the coming months before taking a decision on a possible price hike.

Deora added: “The Cabinet will discuss the crude oil prices before deciding on the matter, just now we are waiting.”

Elections are over and the new government is at the centre. The result is that we are now going to see price hikes which were probably delayed before the elections had taken place.

Indraprastha Gas Limited has announced that they are soon going to hike the price of CNG in Delhi.

CNG in Delhi would get expensive by around Rs. 2.10 per KG. It is currently sold at Rs 18.90 per KG.

CNG has become a popular alternative fuel for cars running in the Delhi NCR region. It turns out to be much cheaper than petrol.

IGL also supply CNG as a cooking gas to houses in the capital city.

A company official spoke about the upcoming price hike: “The board has already cleared the increase in prices, but no date has been decided when it will come into effect.”

CNG prices have dropped in the Gurgaon city after CNG filling stations in Sectors 53 and 29 started receiving direct CNG supply through a pipeline.

This should reduce the load on these pumps resulting in smaller queues.

Haryana Gas Distribution Company Limited has announced that the prices are now down by Rs. 3.50.

M S Khatkar, senior vice-president, HGDCL added in a statement: “Now, CNG is available at Rs 24/kg in the city. It was Rs 27.50/kg earlier. In the past five days since two filling stations started getting supply through pipeline, CNG sales have doubled from 3,000kg to 6,000kg.”

CNG has become a very popular alternative fuel for car owners as it turns out to be pretty cost effective. The running cost of a petrol engine car drops drastically if CNG is used on it.

Reliance Industries has announced that they are planning to reopen their petrol pumps that were shut down around the country.

Market sources say that the company is considering a collaboration with Indian Oil Corporation.

This partnership could see them renting or selling some of the pumps to the government owned body.

A market source said: “The company had invested about Rs 5,000 crore in setting up the retail network and it does not make sense for it to keep them idle”.

RIL had shut down most of their petrol pumps operating in the country last year as they could not sell the fuel profitably.

Indian government subsidize the petrol/diesel sold at pumps operated by state owned oil companies.

Indian government has taken the decision on another fuel price cut.

They have announced a reduction in the prices of Petrol, Diesel and LPG.

Petrol would be cheaper by Rs. 5.

Diesel would be cheaper by Rs. 2.

LPG Cylinder would be cheaper by Rs. 25.

These price cuts are applicable with immediate effect.

Indian minister Pranab Mukherjee spoke about this price cut: “Under the present circumstances, it has been decided to reduce the prices of petrol by 5 rupees and diesel by 2 rupees per liter.”

India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora has hinted that the government is close to announcing yet another price cut on petrol and diesel.

They also might cut the prices on domestic Liquefied petroleum Gas in this latest round.

This latest price cut can be announced in the coming weeks.

Deora was quoted as saying to media personals: “We are currently reviewing the situation in view of the movement of crude oil prices in the international market. Things have started to stabilize and we will try and reduce prices may be in the next fortnight or so. But a final decision will be taken by the Union Cabinet after consultations”.

The government recently cut the prices of fuel after crude oil became much cheaper. The cut was Rs 5 on Petrol and Rs 2 on Diesel.

Global crude prices have continued to remain low and this has enabled the government to consider this second price cut.

Indian government has finally reduced the prices of Petrol and Diesel.

The price of Petrol has been cut by Rs. 5. Diesel is now cheaper by Rs. 2.

the price cut is effective with immediate effect.

This is good news for the market as it would help curb the inflation.

This also happens to be the first price cut in almost two years.

Analysts however say that it would deplete the revenues for the oil companies in India which are already under tremendous pressure due to high taxes.

Indian petroleum minister Murli Deora said in a statement: “We have kept the prices of kerosene and cooking gas untouched as oil companies continue to incur losses on them.”

Elections are coming up in several states in India and the Indian government has decided that they are considering revising the fuel prices.

Indian Petroleum secretary RS Pandey said in a statement that the government would review retail prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas on December 1.

They would then send their report to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

Pandey said: “The Petroleum Ministry can’t decide alone. It will be a collective decision of the government to revise retail prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene sold though public distribution system and domestic liquefied natural gas. I can’t anticipate what the CCEA would decide.”

Petroleum minister Murli Deora had this to say: “The three public sector companies have suffered a net loss of over Rs 14,000 crore in the first-half of the current fiscal. Even after factoring the current global crude oil prices, total under-recoveries of the oil companies are estimated at around Rs 1,10,000 crore for 2008-09 at the current prices of crude oil. Besides, appreciation of rupee against dollar has made import of crude costlier for PSU refineries. The Cabinet will consider all these factors before coming to a conclusion.”

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has clarified that the government has no plans to cut the price of petroleum products.

He said: “Even now the Indian oil companies have to bear a very heavy burden”.

Market was expecting a cut in the price of petrol and diesel considering crude is trading at a low price compared to few months back.

Singh added: “We have been subsidizing LPG, kerosene and diesel to a certain extent. If the prices keep going down, we will explore the possibility.”

He spoke about the need to bailout the Indian airline companies: “There is the employment angle to be looked at. If airlines close down, there will be considerable unemployment.”