TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ After hiking cooking gas LPG price by Rs 76.5 in 19 installments in 17 months, national oil companies skipped the monthly revision in rates this month ahead of elections in Gujarat.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) have been since July last year raising price of LPG on 1st of every month with a view to eliminating government subsidies on the fuel by 2018. The oil companies however skipped the hike this month.
“Yes it is true that we have not done a revision in subsidised LPG price this month,” said a top executive at one of the three retailers requesting not to be quoted. “I am not in a position to specify what promoted this (decision). It is a routine management decision.”
Asked if the government had asked the oil companies to skip the monthly revision, the official refused comments. The price of subsidised LPG was last raised by Rs 4.50 per cylinder on November 1 to Rs 495.69, according to a price notification issued by state-owned firms.
The government last year had asked state-run oil firms to raise prices every month to eliminate all the subsidies by March 2018. Since the implementation of the policy of monthly increases from July last year, subsidised LPG rates have gone up by Rs 76.51 per cylinder. A 14.2-kg LPG cylinder was priced at Rs 419.18 in June 2016.
