Petrol Prices on Fire: India, China, Pakistan; which one is charging the highest?

As petrol prices continue to burn a hole in people's pockets, editorji looks at the fuel prices in India's neighbourhood.

While the average price of petrol in the domestic currency ie: in the Indian rupee has been 102.86 during the March quarter in India, a litre of petrol was sold for 63.09 Indian rupees in Pakistan.

In comparison to this, Nepal had an average petrol price of INR 97.20, Bangladesh INR 78.96 and Sri Lanka INR 77.12 in the same quarter.

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China, however, sold petrol on a bit expensive side when compared to India and the rest of the South Asian countries. March quarter average petrol price in China was INR 111.49.

We also take a look at the distribution of the petrol cost born by an individual, how much of it goes to the government as tax and what is the real cost of fuel in the overall price.

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As per the latest data available on the Indian Oil Corporation website, which is on the basis of petrol price of Rs 95.41 a litre, the base price or the cost of petrol in the total price is just Rs 47.99. Simply, the actual cost of petrol is just 50% of what we pay.

Excise duty, which is charged by the central government, stood at Rs 27.90 (around 30% of the total petrol price) whereas VAT, which is charged by the state governments was Rs 15.50 (over 16%).

Dealer commission was just Rs 3.77 per litre.

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Petrol prices have been on a rise in India, as they have surged seven times in the last eight days.

Petrol price in the national capital had last crossed Rs 100 a litre mark on July 7, 2021, and went on to touch an all-time high of Rs 110.04 before the Modi government on November 4 reduced excise duty on auto fuels. Most states matched that cut with a reduction in local sales tax or VAT.

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State retailers together lost around USD 2.25 billion or Rs 19,000 crore in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the election period, as pointed out by Moody's Investors Services last week.

CRISIL Research said a Rs 15-20 a litre hike in petrol prices is likely if the average crude oil price remains at USD 110-120. The total increase in the petrol prices since last week is Rs 4.80 per litre. While Brent crude futures were trading at $111 per barrel.

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