NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is likely to give the green signal to state-owned oil firms to raise the price of fuel by as much as Rs 3 per litre. According to reports, the decision to raise the price of petrol is likely to be taken as the rupee versus US dollar equation has touched a two-year low and resulted in the cost of importing crude oil also rising. State-run oil firms IOC, BPCL and HPCL have reportedly lost Rs.2,450 crore this fiscal on selling petrol -- whose rates were freed from government control in June last year -- below the cost. Ministry officials have said that if the price of petrol is not increased, they can expect a loss of a further Rs.2,850 crore. Besides petrol, the three firms are losing Rs 263 crore per day on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost. Diesel is being sold at a subsidy of Rs 6.05 a litre, kerosene at Rs 23.25 per litre while domestic LPG rates are under-priced by Rs 267 per 14.2-kg cylinder. In the first half of the current fiscal, the oil industry has reportedly lost around Rs 65,000 crore on the three products.

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