Essar Global Ltd Chairman Shashi Ruia has said the government should jack up prices of petrol and diesel sold by state-run retailers keeping with the rally in international crude oil prices. "Rising crude prices will certainly affect us. If it keeps increasing this way,the government should raise prices of petrol and diesel," Ruia said in Mumbai. Oil has doubled from USD 36 per barrel in January to about USD 70-72 per barrel now on expectations that the worst of the global economic slowdown is over. Essar Oil,part of a USD 22-billion conglomerate,on June 16 hiked prices of petrol by Rs 1-2.50 and diesel by Rs 1-2,prior to which it sold the fuels at rates at par with PSU firms IndianOil,Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum. "It is our request to the government that retailers like us should also be given petro-bonds like the PSUs. We should be treated at par with the state-run oil firms," Ruia said. Oil PSUs sell fuel below market rates and are subsidised by the government in the form of oil bonds. Private retailers such as Reliance Industries and Essar Oil could not compete with the subsidised rates and thus incurred losses. Ruia also wanted the government to bring in safeguard duties for the steel sector.
