Mokokchung, March 6 (MTNews): Hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, along with sustained demand, is expected to push India’s domestic prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 15 – 22 per liter. According to information from the oil ministry, the basket of crude oil India buys rose to USD 117.39 per barrel on March 3, the highest since 2012. At present, India imports 85 per cent of its crude oil needs.

 

 

Despite these facts, the prices have not been revised for 120 days in a row. Prices are supposed to be revised on a daily basis but the state-owned fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL have frozen the rates as elections for new governments in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa were in order. The final phase of election polling for Uttar Pradesh’s legislative assembly is on March 7 and vote counting is on 10th March.

 

 

With international oil prices spiking in the last two months, on which domestic fuel retails are directly benchmarked, state-owned fuel retailers “need a massive price hike of Rs 12.1 per liter on or before March 16, 2022, just to breakeven and a price hike of Rs 15.1 is required after including margins for oil firms,” market experts ICICI Securities said in a report.

 

 

It is widely expected that the oil marketing companies (OMCs) will revise the current prices on or after March 7, which is the last day of voting in the ongoing state assembly elections. Besides, it is expected that the cascading effect of higher fuel cost will trigger a general inflationary trend.

 

 

In Mokokchung, petrol rate as on March 6, 2022 remained at 99.45 per liter and Diesel rate at 85.89 per liter. Vehicles were seen queuing up at the fuel filling stations in Mokokchung on Sunday evening as word spread of the likely hike in fuel prices that is expected to affect the whole country.

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