Daily price revisions of petrol and diesel follow a successful pilot project in five cities
Highlights
- Monday's revision mostly lowered petrol, diesel rates in 4 major cities
- Petrol, diesel daily price revisions started from June 16
- From 6 am on June 19, petrol sold at Rs 64.65 per litre in New Delhi
Petrol and diesel rates were revised for a fourth day in a row as part of a new system of
daily price changes in petroleum products, in a shift from fortnightly price revisions. Daily price revisions started from June 16. Terming it as a "win-to-all situation" for consumers, industry and dealers alike, Indian Oil Corp said the daily price revision of petrol and diesel will set new standards of transparency, encourage automation drive of petrol pumps and better stock management practices.
The daily price revision of petrol and diesel follows a successful pilot project in five cities - Chandigarh, Jamshedpur, Puducherry, Udaipur and Vizag - from May 1. Under earlier mechanism, three PSU oil marketing companies - Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum - revised the prices on the 1st and 16th of every month based on average international crude oil and foreign exchange rates.
Monday's revision mostly lowered the prices of petrol and diesel in the four major cities - Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. After this revision, effective 6 am on June 19, a litre of petrol retailed at Rs 64.65 in New Delhi, Rs 67.37 in Kolkata, Rs 75.88 in Mumbai and Rs 67.14 in Chennai.
Diesel rates were revised lower, to Rs 54.01 in New Delhi, Rs 56.16 in Kolkata, Rs 59.39 in Mumbai and Rs 56.89 in Chennai.
"The seamless implementation of Daily Pricing has been possible due to support from our dealers fraternity," Indian Oil director (marketing) B S Canth said in a statement dated June 16 while rolling out the new revision system.
Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said last week: "Proud to share that India is the first country to switch to dynamic fuel pricing on such a large scale at one go."
Indian Oil has stepped up efforts towards seamless daily revisions. That includes LED screens at petrol pumps, a toll-free number, social media posts, price revision app alerts and SMSes.
Indian Oil Corporation has set up 87 control rooms across the country for addressing technical glitches or system issues that may be arising at the dealer's end. Prices will also be communicated to dealers by four modes: customised SMSes, e-mails, mobile app and web portal for dealers.
Apart from reducing volatility, the shift to daily price revisions will ensure that there is no sudden increase or decrease in domestic selling prices, Indian Oil had said earlier.
How to check prices online:
Consumers can visit the
Indian Oil website.
Once on the website, they can use the '
RO Locator' tool to locate the Indian Oil retail outlet nearest to them based on their location.
The website displays prices of various products sold.
How to check rates through SMS:
Consumers need to send an SMS to fetch the current rates applicable at a dealer.
Indian Oil has prescribed a format for sending such SMSes: SMS RSP< SPACE >DEALER CODE to 92249-92249
"The Dealer Code of each petrol pump would be prominently displayed in the petrol pump premises," IOC has said.
How to check petrol, diesel prices through app:
Indian Oil's mobile app, called "Fuel@IOC - IndianOil", also enables customers to check current prices.
This mobile application by Indian Oil is available on both Google Play and Apple Store, for Android and iPhone smartphone users respectively.
Helpline for consumer grievances
Indian Oil has set up a customer care helpline 1800-2333-555 to lodge grievances related to daily price revision. "In case of any discrepancy customers can access IndianOil easily as all its petrol pumps prominently display mobile numbers of the concerned Field Officers," Indian Oil said.
Customers also log in to the website iocl.com to submit any grievance. This can be done through the 'We're Listening' section, a link to which is provided on the home page.
Petrol and diesel are deregulated in India, which means they are linked to market rates. The government had freed prices aviation turbine fuel (ATF) in 2002, petrol in 2010 and diesel in 2014.
As India imports bulk of its oil needs, global price of crude oil and dollar-rupee exchange rates impact the domestic prices of petrol and diesel.
India is the world's third biggest oil consumer, with about 3.5 crore people coming to fuel stations every day. India consumed 23.8 million tonnes of petrol and 76 million tonnes of diesel in fiscal year 2016-17. This was higher than 21.8 million tonnes of petrol and 74.6 million tonnes of diesel consumed in the previous financial year.
(With agency inputs)