IOC Chairman defends hike in petrol price
New Delhi   05-Nov-2011

State-owned oil marketing IndianOil (IOC) on Friday defended the petrol price hike saying that it doesn't get subsidy from the government over losses on petrol sale.

The IOC chairman, Mr R.S. Butola, said that the oil marketing companies had lost `2,468 crore on selling the fuel below cost in the first half of the current fiscal. “Given the magnitude of the losses, the choice before us was to either cut down production or pass on the increase to consumers. We chose to raise prices and continue supply lines,“ he said.

Mr Butola said that the company does not plan to affect a roll-back in the petrol prices, but will do so if it got such a directive from the government.