FY13 under-recoveries seen at Rs 1.88 lakh crore: Oil Min

Earlier in the day, there were reports that diesel and LPG price hike would be discussed in the meeting. He further said that he has several times taken up the price hike issue with the authorities. "Price hike will happen gradually,how soon I can't say," he said.

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The minister also said that for FY13, under-recoveries on sale of petroleum products would be around Rs 1.88 lakh crore. He pointed out that on the sale of petrol alone oil marketing companies are losing around Rs 6 on eahc litre.

Currently, state-run Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil Corporation are losing around Rs 15 per litre on sale of diesel and approximately, they incur losses of Rs 200 crore each day on sale of this fuel.

Diesel price was last raised last year by Rs 3/litre on diesel and since then OMCs have been crying hoarse about the insufficient subsidy they get on various fuel products including petrol which was de-regulated in 2010 but its rates haven't moved in tandem with cost because of the government's aim to keep inflation in check. Even now, OMCs claim that they are losing around Rs 4 on sale of petrol.

During 2011-12, the three OMCs lost Rs 1,38,541 crore in revenues on selling diesel, LPG and kerosene. To make up, the government gave Rs 83,500 crore in cash assistance to the OMCs while upstream firms like Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) chipped in Rs 55,000 crore and the remaining was borne by OMCS themselves.