IOC set to raise petrol prices

State-owned Indian Oil Corp, the largest oil retailer in the country, today hinted at an imminent hike in petrol prices.

The prices of petrol have not been revised since January in view of elections in states like West Bengal.

"We would do it at the earliest possible," IOC chairman, Ranbir Singh Butola said in New Delhi today.

Interacting for the first time with the media after taking over as the chairman of the largest fuel marketing firm in the country, Butola said IOC and other state firms had consciously decided to hold the petrol price line to keep "the environment happy".

Petrol pricing had been freed last year from government control and state run firms had, on as many as seven occasions, changed rates in step with international prices before deciding in the second half of January to freeze rates.

"We live in an environment (comprising of the people and the government). If we take certain action, the environment is going to turn against us," he said.