CHENNAI: While the government asked people to curb consumption of fuel and raised the rates of diesel and petrol by Rs 3 per litre due to availability issues, petroleum exports surged 34.66 per cent to a 24-month high of $9.5 billion in April. On the other hand, crude imports were down 10 per cent in the month.
In April, petroleum product exports stood at $9.5 billion against $7.1 billion in the same month last year when there were no geopolitical tensions threatening the availability of fuel. Meanwhile, crude oil imports in April fell 10 per cent to $18 billion against $20 billion in the same month last year. As crude prices have gone up, the decline would be more in volume terms.
In March also exports of petroleum products grew 5.88 per cent to $5 billion against $4.8 billion in the same month last year. The leading exporter of petroleum products is Reliance Energy. The Vadinar facility of Nayara Energy, another major exporter, was on a maintenance-related shutdown in April.
As it is located in a Special Economic Zone, Reliance Energy’s Jamnagar refinery with 1.4 million barrels per day is also exempt from windfall taxes of Rs 21.5 per litre on diesel and Rs 29.5 per litre on aviation turbine fuel (ATF), reintroduced in March.
“SEZ units operate under contractual and judicial frameworks that grant tax exemptions, creating a parallel pricing system between SEZ and non-SEZ exports. However, in an emergency situation with domestic shortages, there is a case for temporary measures to align export taxes and protect local supply, as seen in other countries that have imposed export restrictions,” said Dhananjay Sinha, CEO and Co-head, Institutional Equities, Systematix Group.
China, Russia, Thailand and South Korea have either suspended or capped exports of petroleum products to make fuel available in the domestic market.
India exported 64.7 million tons of petroleum products valued at $47.7 billion in FY25. India refines crude and exports, petrol, diesel, motor spirit, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to countries, including Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Netherlands.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
