After reaching an all-time high in April, the price of gasoline and diesel in India has remained steady for the fifth consecutive month. In the majority of the country, the cost of gasoline and diesel continues to be around the $100 mark. Since April, the oil retailing businesses have stopped daily rate revisions. There is a little obvious indication that fuel prices would decrease, even though it has provided respite to consumers who drive vehicles and two-wheelers. This is despite a seven-month decrease in global energy prices.

For the first time since February, the price of a barrel of crude oil has fallen below $90 globally. However, the state-owned fuel sellers claim that they continue to lose money on diesel, India's most popular fuel for both commercial and personal vehicles. One of the reasons there hasn't been a change in pricing is due to this. In India, the price of gasoline and diesel has been frozen for a record-breaking 158 days.

The Centre, which earlier reduced taxes on both fuels to halt surging oil prices, linked losses incurred by oil retailers and ruled out any possible reduction in prices in near future. Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, "When (international oil) prices were high, our (petrol and diesel) prices were already low," he had said. "Have we recouped all our losses?" He did not, however, go into detail about the losses experienced by maintaining the same prices since April.

Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, three state-run oil retailers, had a retail fuel loss of 18,480 crore rupees in the second quarter. Recently, they achieved a profit on gasoline, but they continue to lose money on diesel. Daily changes to the price of gasoline and diesel are customary among the three oil retailers. As the rates climbed by 10 cents a litre each over the course of two weeks, price revision resumed on March 22. However, BPCL claims that the increase was insufficient to cover the expense.

The fuel retailers were formerly losing between $20 and $25 per litre of diesel and between $14 and $20 per litre of gasoline. "Next month (September) onwards there will be no losses on LPG. We don't have any losses on gasoline (petrol) today," Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and Managing Director at BPCL, had said last month.

An estimated 85% of India's oil needs are met by imports. India's retail pricing for gasoline and diesel is directly influenced by international prices. On September 8, India paid $88 per barrel for its imports of crude oil, significantly less than the average price of $102 in April and $116 in June. In July, when the Indian basket averaged USD 105.49 per barrel, prices began to decline.

In the national capital, the price of gasoline is currently 96.72 and that of diesel is 89.62. As the government reduced excise duty to lower prices, this represents a decrease from the 105.41 and 96.67 pence per litre prices for gasoline and diesel on April 6.

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