IOC to cut petrol prices from Wednesday

REUTERS - Indian Oil Corp (IOC) , the country's biggest refiner, will cut petrol prices by 4.5 percent from Wednesday as global prices of the fuel have declined and as the rupee appreciated against the dollar, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The three state-run fuel retailers -- IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp -- tend to move their prices together.

India deregulated petrol prices in June 2010.

In January, India allowed fuel retailers to raise the price of subsidised diesel by 1 cent a litre every month and asked bulk buyers to pay market rates.

However, the retailers have held back from raising diesel prices, considered a politically sensitive issue, despite suffering a revenue loss of 3.80 rupees a litre on the fuel, ahead of the polls in Karnataka in May.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; editing by Malini Menon)