Daily price revisions for petrol, diesel from June 16

Don’t be surprised to see a new price every time you visit a petrol pump. Beginning from 16 June, petrol and diesel prices will be revised on a daily basis. 

The state-run fuel retailers, Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL, are taking this step to ensure the prices reflect the current market conditions, besides leading to increased transparency in the system. Currently, the oil companies have been revising fuel prices every fortnight. The major drawback of this approach was when the crude oil prices were high and the value of rupee against the dollar was low, the fuel prices were increased by a big margin. 

The daily price revisions have already been in place in five Indian cities from 1 May. In order to make the consumers aware, the companies will establish an appropriate mechanism for conveying the prices. This includes, daily publishing of the prices in newspaper, prominent displays of prices at the retail outlets, sending of price-related data/SMS from the centralised locations and mobile apps.

This pricing approach is already in place in many developed countries. Crude oil is the highest imported commodity in India. Having an efficient pricing system is bound to help the country and its consumers.