New Delhi: Fuel prices are likely to be tough on the wallet starting next week as crude oil prices are soaring.
Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) has started daily revision of the prices of petrol and diesel in the wake of Russia- Ukraine situation.
February opened with Brent crude oil price peeking to around 30 per cent following concerns of unstable supply of oil and gas.
There's enough reason for the concern with Russia being the major supplier to India's fuel stock.
India imports about 85 per cent of its crude oil requirements. Brent rose to $119.84 a barrel, the highest since 2012. By 11:27 am ET, it was 0.1 per cent up at $113.08, Indian Express reports.
Even so, OPEC+ group of oil exporting countries are likely to increase only4, 00,000 barrels per day in April. This addition of crude oil would still keep the production '8.3 per cent lower than reference production levels'.
The government, according to Probal Sen, analyst at ICICI Securities, has to reduce excise duty to trammel the impact of rising prices. In Delhi, retailing petrol and diesel prices are Rs 95.41 per litre and Rs 86.67 per litre respectively.
Reports point at City Gas Distribution companies as likely to hiking prices in April. However, State-owned OMCs have kept in check prices of petrol and diesel since November 4, when the government cut excise duty on both fuels by Rs 5 per litre and Rs 10 per litre, respectively.
With polls to Assemblies in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur conclude in the coming week, daily price revisions could start again. In 2021, OMCs held fuels prices in check for two month during the state polls.
Give this backdrop, chances are high for oil prices to go up again after the polls conclude; it is all the more so with the Russian forces continuing to attack Ukraine.