Indian Petrol costlier than US, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a BOB Economics Research report showed. Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.

The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.

The report of Bank of Baroda Economic Research juxtaposed petrol prices as of May 9 in various countries with the per capita income. “For a set of 106 countries for which data is available, the price in India at USD 1.35 per litre is 42nd in rank. Hence there are over 50 countries where the price is higher. This should provide some comfort that in absolute terms India is not an outlier. The median price was around USD 1.22 a litre,” it said.

(www.economictimes.indiatimes.com)