Selling diesel at Rs 20-25 a litre below cost and petrol at Rs 14-18 per litre below cost, as a result of a price freeze despite soaring crude rates is unsustainable, an industry body representing private fuel retailers like Jio-bp and Nayara Energy has told the oil ministry and has sought its intervention.

On June 10, the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), which besides private fuel retailers also counts stateowned firms such as IOC, BPCL and HPCL as its members, wrote to the petroleum ministry-saying losses on petrol and diesel would limit further investments in retailing business.

International crude oil and product prices have risen sharply to a decade high but state-owned fuel retailers, who control 90 per cent of the market, have frozen petrol and diesel prices at rates equivalent to two-third of the cost.

This has left private fuel retailers to either raise prices or lose customers, or to curtail sales to cut losses. Retail selling prices for petrol and diesel were held for a record 137 days between early November 2021 and March 21, 2022 despite soaring prices. “With effect from March 22, 2022, the retail selling prices were revised on 14 occasions at an average of 80 paise per litre per day, leading to an overall increase of Rs 10 per litre on both petrol and diesel. “However, the under-recoveries (losses) continue to be very high in a range of Rs 20-25 per litre for diesel and Rs 14-18 per litre for petrol,” FIPI director general Gurmeet Singh wrote