(ET)
The global health emergency posed by the spread of the novel coronavirus, is coming to country’s advantage, at least, in the oil sector. India’s oil imports bill is expected to fall by a sharper 10 per cent in FY20 as the increasing spread of coronavirus has depressed the crude oil prices to below $50 a barrel now against a high of over $70 a barrel in September and again in January this year.
According to the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), the country’s oil imports are projected to fall to 225 million tonnes (mt) in FY 20 against 227 mt in FY19 while the import bill would reduce 6 per cent to $105 billion from $112 billion worth of imports in previous fiscal.
However, this calculation is based on average crude price of $64 a barrel for April-December of the current fiscal while the January-March imports has been worked on the basis of crude price of $66 a barrel. It is worth noting that crude oil prices slipped to below $60 and now below $50 a battle now from heights witnessed in first week of January. Analysts say that this would bring big savings on oil imports that generally surges in the later part of the financial year.
