Frayed tempers and altercations over short measurement at petrol pumps may soon become a thing of past with public sector oil marketing companies taking up automation of the fuel dispensers.
On Friday, the Empowered Group of Ministers on fuel raised diesel prices by Rs 3 per litre. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, SK Joshi, Director of Finance, BPCL said the immediate impact of the measures taken by government on Friday will reduce our liquidity strain.
No longer able to withstand high crude prices, Chairman RS Butola, in an exclusive on CNBC-TV18 said that while prices were expected to fall, they haven't, which has led them to increase prices.
RS Sharma, former chairman of ONGC, in an exclusive interview CNBC-TV-18's Udayan Mukherjee and Mitali Mukherjee, said that the downstream fuel retailers are under a lot of stress. “The higher upstream subsidy burden will not be well received by the market,” he added.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18's Udayan Mukherjee and Mitali Mukherjee, RS Sharma, former chairman of ONGC and Kirit Parikh, member of Planning Commission, said that the government has never clarified on the subsidy sharing mechanism for upstream companies and higher upstream burden will not be received well by the market.
The government has closed its oil subsidy account for fiscal year 2011 by giving state-owned oil marketing companies an additional subsidy of Rs 20,000 crore.
SK Joshi, director (Finance), BPCL said that even after the hike in petrol prices BPCL is still incurring Rs 1 per litre under recovery on it.