PMK urges oil companies to reduce fuel prices

CHENNAI: PMK Founder S Ramadoss on Thursday urged the oil companies to lower the price of petrol and diesel and to provide relief for the public.

"The crude oil prices in the global market are continuously going down. A barrel of crude oil which costed 116 dollar in June, which was the highest in nine years, has come down to 90 dollar now. This is a 22 percent reduction. Oil companies are pocketing Rs 6 per litre of petrol and so it is the right time for the oil companies to lower the fuel prices." said Ramadoss, in a statement.

He also said that it is true that during the hike in oil prices the oil companies did not increase the fuel price after April 6, this year, and they have incurred loss but the three month loss was made up in the next three months to follow. Apart from that the union government also provided compensation of Rs 22,000 crore.

The oil companies decided to reduce the price of fuel by Rs 0.4 per day for five consecutive days starting from November 1 till November 5 to reduce the fuel price by Rs 2 per litre but the decision was also dropped for reasons unknown.

Ramadoss further said due to the reduction in crude oil price the production cost of LPG has also come down but it has not reflected in domestic LPG cylinders. The oil companies have reduced the price of commercial cylinders by Rs 615 per unit in the last six months but for domestic LPG the cost has been increased by Rs 103 in the same period.