India's state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) hiked gasoline/petrol prices steeply on Wednesday.
The hike came on a day the rupee fell to a record low against the U.S. dollar. In Wednesday's trade, the Indian currency breached 56 per dollar. A fuel price hike was on cards as the government tries to tackle the country's huge oil import bill.
Gasoline prices were hiked by 6.28 rupees per litre excluding value added tax/sales tax, the Indian Oil Corporation said in a statement. The increase will come into effect midnight of 23/24 May 2012, the company added. HPCL and BPCL are the other two OMCs.
The latest hike is the biggest ever, reports said, and took analysts by surprise as a 5 rupees increase was widely expected. India deregulated gasoline prices since June 2010. The previous revision was in December 2011.
Reports also said that the Group of Ministers will meet on Friday to mull raising diesel and cooking gas prices.
Meanwhile, some partners of the ruling coalition UPA and opposition parties have already called for a rollback.
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