Public Sector Undertaking Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) such as IndianOil, BPCL and HPCL have kept petrol and diesel prices unchanged as the country fully transitioned to BS-VI compliant fuels.

“The PSU OMCs have incurred capital expenditure to the tune of about ₹35,000 crore in upgrading their countrywide refineries, pipelines and marketing distribution network to be able to usher in BS-VI fuels, directly leapfrogging from BS-IV fuels,” an IndianOil statement said.

“Further, the refineries shall incur incremental operating costs on a sustained basis to manufacture BS-VI petrol and diesel with 10 parts per million (ppm) of sulphur as against 50 ppm in BS-IV fuels earlier. Taking into consideration the capex costs and the likely incremental opex costs, there would be some impact on the retail selling price of petrol and diesel,” the statement added.

Companies have kept product prices unchanged considering the current crisis brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“However, the increase in the retail selling prices of petrol and diesel in some States like Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, etc with effect from April 1, 2020 is purely on account of the increase in Value Added Tax rates by the respective State Governments on both the products from that date. The OMCs have made no change in the basic selling price and have maintained it at the same level,” the statement said.