Petrol prices to be revised every month

The three state-owned oil companies will reset the price of petrol every month as per international crude prices, Indian Oil has said. The firms, including Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, will consult each other and decide on the same price, company officials decided in a meeting on Wednesday.

Oil minister Murli Deora had called for the meeting after the companies could not agree to a unified mechanism. While the smaller firms, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, wanted a two-week cycle, Indian Oil wanted a longer cycle to prevent speculation and hoarding at the retailer end.  SV Narasimhan, finance director at Indian Oil, confirmed the move to revise prices once every month.

The decision has come barely three weeks after the government removed price control over petrol, allowing private oil companies such as Reliance Industries and Essar Oil to compete on a level playing field with state-owned oil companies. The move may yet fall foul of India’s competition laws, which prohibit collusive pricing, especially since the three companies account for nearly 95% of the total market.