Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi on Tuesday. (PTI)

New Delhi, March 9: Fuel prices should be raised if global crude prices, which are around $80 per barrel, continue their upward trend, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, said.

Less than a fortnight ago, the government had raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 3 per litre in the budget, prompting a walkout from Parliament by the Opposition parties during finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s speech.

“Fuel prices have to be revised upwards if international crude prices continue to move up. Otherwise it would have a negative impact on the country’s fiscal deficit,” Ahluwalia said. Crude is now ruling at around $80 per barrel in the global exchanges. The Indian basket of crude is at around $70 per barrel.

In the budget, Mukherjee has raised the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1 per litre and import duty to 7.5 per cent from 2.5 per cent.

Minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Jitin Prasada told the Rajya Sabha today that central and state taxes made up more than 50 per cent of the price of petrol in Delhi.

In Calcutta, too, of petrol’s price of Rs 51.15 per litre, taxes are Rs 27.31 per litre, with the state government earning Rs 10.80 per litre.

The share of taxes in diesel is lower: of diesel’s price of Rs 37.73 per litre in Calcutta, the tax is Rs 12.82, with the state government’s share being Rs 6.28 per litre.

Prasada said state-owned IOC, BPCL and HPCL suffered Rs 29,353 crore revenue loss on the sale of domestic LPG cylinder and kerosene during the April-December period of the current fiscal. Of this, the finance ministry has confirmed a budgetary support of Rs 12,000 crore, he said.

Mukherjee had left it to the oil ministry to take a call on the Kirit Parikh committee report on oil pricing, which had said the subsidy burden could be maintained at a “bearable” level if free market pricing of petrol and diesel was allowed along with periodic increases in the prices of cooking gas and kerosene.