Petrol prices creep up following daily changes

The manager at a fuel outlet in the national capital claimed on Wednesday that every evening around 8 pm, outlets were informed of the fuel price effective from 6 am next morning.

On June 16, the government had decided that fuel prices would be revised daily, ostensibly to match the international oil rates.

Since then, the prices of petrol and diesel have been constantly on the rise despite stability in international crude prices. Though it has been rising so slowly that the common man is not able to notice that petrol prices have risen about 8 per cent since the switchover from fortnightly revisions to daily revisions.

On August 23, the price of petrol in Delhi was ₹68.88 while onJune 16, it was being sold at ₹64.50.

On Wednesday, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury tweeted to highlight the trend:

Prices also differ from one oil company to other. In Delhi, on Wednesday, price of fuel at Bharat Petroleum outlets were higher than prices at outlets of Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil. This is apparently due to different transportation costs from different refineries.

Compared to Monday this week, petrol prices had risen by 30 paise per litre and diesel by 4 paise on Wednesday.

The data clearly shows that there is a hike of only 1.06 per cent in the price of crude oil while petrol has seen a hike of a whopping 8.86 per cent in the month of July-August.

Oil companies like Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum adopted daily price revisions for petrol and diesel from June 16 with the objective of better alignment of domestic rates of petrol and diesel with global oil rates.

After this revision, consumers are confused as they are not able to get updates on daily prices. “Earlier, we were able to know the prices from the TV as it was increased once or twice in a month but now, we don’t know where to check the updates,” said a customer.

As a result, customers are not able to assess that they are paying a higher price for fuel even when international crude oil price has not changed much. The benefit of the almost stable price of crude oil has not been passed on to people.

The Economic Times put out the following advisory for consumers :

1. Customers can check the cost by sending a SMS or logging into Indian Oil's mobile app. The app Fuel@IOC will carry both diesel and petrol prices.

2. Alternatively, customers can type RSP< SPACE >DEALER CODE and send it to 92249-92249 to receive the fuel prices through SMS. Bharat Petroleum consumers use the same format, the number is 9223112222 and Hindustan Petroleum customers can SMS HPPRICEDEALERCODE to 9222201122.

3. The app is available on Google Play and Apple Store. BPCL also runs a similar app called SmartDrive and the app run by HP is called MYHPCL.

4. Not all petrol pumps are automated, so you have to be very careful while checking the rates. Some pumps have put up LED screens, you may also track social media for daily updates.

5. Prices might vary by 5 to 10 paise because of the transportation cost involved, so better check the prices before stepping out to refill.