Fuel Prices India

Part of: GIZ International Fuel Price database
Also see: India Energy Situation

Fuel Pricing Policies

Local Currency:	INR
Exchange Rate:	45.479 (2010/11/17)
Last Update:	2011/05/01

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas supervises both the upstream and downstream fuel sectors in India (http://petroleum.nic.in/). While there is plenty of legal information on the ministries website, clear and easy-to-understand information regarding fuel price breakdowns and further pricing policies is missing. Annual reports offer detailed top-level-statistics and also fuel price timelines.

The downstream market is open to private companies. The fuel price is regulated via maximum prices, which are set by the government / the ministry several times a year (depending on the degree of volatility of international crude oil prices). Prices are changed on an ad-hoc basis and in times of high crude oil prices OMCs are forced to sell at prices levels that do not cover the overall costs. This leads to temporary huge losses for oil companies that need to be outbalanced by the government. Thus, in fact fuels (especially diesel) are subsidized in India (→App. A1). Taxes on diesel are much lower than on gasoline.

Indian states impose different taxes on fuels. Also, every state imposes VAT independently.

The findings of latest reform effort are compiled in the report “Report of The Expert Group on A Viable and Sustainable System of Pricing of Petroleum Products”: http://petroleum.nic.in/reportprice.pdf , which contains a wealth of information.

Fuel Prices and Trends

	Gasoline 95 Octane	Diesel
in USD*
in Local Currency

* benchmark lines: green=US price; grey=price in Spain; red=price of Crude Oil

Fuel Price Composition

Price composition for one litre of Gasoline 95 Octane.

For an assumed price of 58.90 INR.

(*VAT differ among states and over time; 19% is an usual value; up to 28% for gasoline in some states.)

(**Transportation charge differs depending on actual transportation costs. 6 INR is an average value.)

(***includes: Education Tax (0.43INR), Crude Oil Custom Duty (1.1INR) and Petrol Custom Duty (1.54INR).)

Source: http://www.kokkada.com/calculations-of-petrol-prices-in-india/ (→App. A3). Taxation on Diesel is considerably lower, resulting to overall lower pump prices.

At a Glance

Regulation-Price-Matrix	Transparency of Price Composition Transparency of Pricing Mechanism / Monitoring

Clear information on fuel price breakdown and pricing formula missing.

Sources to the Public

Type of Information	Web-Link / Source
Other Information	http://petroleum.nic.in/ (GSI: Lessons Learned from Attempts to Reform India's Kerosene Subsidy)
Other Information	http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2010/lessons_india_kerosene_subsidy.pdf
Pump prices and margins	http://www.iocl.com (Indian Oil; retailer)
Pump prices and margins	http://petroleum.nic.in/petstat.pdf (Ministry report)

Contact

Please find more information on GIZ International Fuel Price Database and http://www.giz.de/fuelprices

This is a living document. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to contact us: Armin.Wagner@giz.de