(FE)
India’s state-run oil marketing companies plan to revise retail fuel prices everyday, beginning with five cities across the country, to better shield themselves from volatility in global crude oil prices. The three state-run fuel retailers plan to roll out a pilot from May 1 in the cities of Puducherry and Vizag in southern India, Udaipur in the West, Jamshedpur in the East and Chandigarh in the North, before implementing the mechanism nationwide, Reuters reported citing unidentified sources.
At present, the three state-run oil marketing firms – Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp – review retail fuel prices periodically and usually revise them every fortnight to pass on the impact of global crude oil prices on their purchases. However, they have skipped the revision for the past three months, last revising the prices on January 15.
Since these three companies together control the bulk of the fuel retail market with over 90% of the operational outlets between them and hence practically set the benchmarks in fuel pricing, the private fuel marketers Reliance Industries and Essar Oil, who have most of the remaining market, will likely soon follow suit.
