RIL awaits deregulation

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) is awaiting the deregulation of diesel fuel prices before it ramps up its retail outlets, said Senior Vice President Vivek Srivastava. According to Srivastava, the company plans to invest around Rs55 billion (US$1.2 billion) on expansion plans. RIL has licenses to open more than 5,800 retail outlets in the country. It currently has 1,600 fuel retail outlets across India, 650 of which are company-owned and the rest franchisees. However, it had shut down 700 outlets as it could not compete with state-owned retailers who were selling fuel at government-mandated prices. Shrivastava further said the company is currently losing Rs3 rupees (US$0.07) per liter of diesel fuel sold. (November 2, 2010)