Mumbai, June 5: Officials of Reliance Industries, the country’s largest private sector refiner, say the company will take a decision in a day on whether prices of petroleum products should be raised.

“We will take a decision either late tonight or latest by tomorrow,” an official said soon after the government announced a hike in prices of petroleum products.

Last month, RIL broke ranks with public sector oil companies in announcing an increase in prices of both petrol and diesel. The company had first on May 11 increased petrol prices by Rs 2.50 per litre to Rs 2.90 across the country. This was because RIL, like other oil companies, was also suffering from huge losses. Reports said it was losing more than Rs 400 crore per month.

Subsequently, on May 22, RIL raised the prices of diesel by Rs 2 per litre. Incidentally, diesel is the company’s largest selling petroleum product. RIL has 4 per cent share in petrol sales in the country and 9 per cent in diesel. The increase came as Reliance was losing close to Rs 9 per litre on diesel sales.

RIL has more than 1,300 pumps in the country, most of which are located on highways. Here, the sales of diesel are high.

However, many expect the company to again announce a hike in petrol and diesel prices as the company continues to lose money despite raising the product prices last month.