In the past 100 days, retail petrol prices have remained unchanged at the pump, whereas the crude prices (Indian basket) have reduced by around $20/barrel. The retail prices have possibly been kept at the same level to allow the Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) to compensate for the losses they incurred in the recent past. Between November 2021 and March 2022, despite international crude prices skyrocketing, the retail prices remained unchanged owing to the Assembly Elections in five States. A similar freeze was enforced in the recent months to curtail inflation. Such repeated interventions have resulted in heavy losses for the OMCs. Therefore, in the recent months, the OMCs have not revised the base price to make up for the losses.
Crude mismatch
Between November 2021 and March 2022, retail petrol prices did not increase despite the price of crude oil going up significantly during the period, owing to the elections in five States.
