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Bloomberg
India state-run refiners resumed raising retail gasoline and diesel prices after a three-week hiatus that coincided with the run up to elections in a southern state.
Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s biggest fuel maker and de facto price-setter for other state-run refiners, increased prices.
That’s the first change since April 24, data on the company’s website showed, and the longest stretch of unchanged prices since the government-owned refiners moved to daily revisions last year to reflect international oil prices. Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose more than 4 percent in the same period.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of keeping inflation in check has made fuel prices a sensitive issue in India, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is contesting several state elections ahead of a general election next year. While the government has said it hasn’t given fuel retailers any directives over prices, the timing of the recent freeze and subsequent resumption has raised speculation that fuel prices are being used to bolster support at the polls.
An oil ministry spokesman referred questions to Indian Oil and teh IOC spokesman declined to comment.