Petrol price fluctuations in India

Nevertheless, they have emphasized on the point that the petrol price might increase any time if an upward trend is observed on the crude oil price and it works the other way round too. The petrol price in India will be placed in accordance with the Singapore crude oil price. The petrol price was revised for around 13 times in the past two years to mark the reduction for the first time. The state owned oil companies, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil Corporation have been the sole decision makers on the petrol price revisions after an official nod from the Government. The petrol price hike on November 4th has attracted a major political conflict as the oil companies were making a profit of 25 paise by then, but still went ahead with the price hike of Rs 1.80 per liter.

Unable to bear further pressure, they had however promised to consider a reduction after observing the crude oil price and rupee value for a fortnight. The recent oil price revision has helped the government right before the winter session in the parliament which is yet to begin from November 22nd to ward off any political pressure from the opposition. While this is the first reduction in the petrol price, the oil companies did not raise the petrol price earlier despite the increase in the crude oil price fearing the Assembly elections ahead. Hence, we can easily deduce that despite the formal deregulation of the petrol price, the Government can intervene any time to influence the decision of the oil companies to act in favour of the consumers.