Fuel prices in India have been unchanged for the past 11 days. MK Surana, CMD at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), discussed the fuel price trends.

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“The prices are supposed to be decontrolled and there is already a lot of deliberation, which is happening during the last few days. There are two factors, one is the basic commodity prices which is supposed to be aligned to the international prices and second is taxation. As far as taxation is concerned, there are choices that the government has to make at the central and state level,” he said.

In terms of prices, he said, “The February month total fuel demand is a result of many factors. Last February 2020 was an unusual one as far as total demand is concerned compared to February 2019. All of a sudden there was a fear among the people regarding lockdown coming at that time. Compared to that February 2021 was just above the last year’s per day sale.”

“If we consider all the factors and the seasonal effects etc, the recovery in India has been quite good. So I would not be extremely worried about it considering from where we started in April month to where we have reached already,” he added.

“Diesel and petrol cracks were on the lower side in the last few months. However, there is a smart recovery on both the fronts. That is on the back of a general recovery on international front. Last two weeks’ drop in the gasoline inventory in the US is one of the highest in last five years. So there is a general trend of demand recovery across the world and that should help in reducing the surplus inventory which is in the market,” Surana pointed out.

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(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)