The major portion of the decrease in refinery transfer price of petrol and diesel has been passed on to the consumers, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
In a written reply, the Minister said the refinery transfer price of petrol and diesel has reduced by ₹16.69 a litre and ₹17.64 a litre, respectively, between July 1, 2014 and May 1, 2015.
While the drop in the retail selling price of petrol and diesel during this period has been lower than the refinery transfer price, it is after considering an increase in excise duty. The retail price of petrol has come down ₹10.44 a litre during the period, while for diesel it has dropped by ₹ 8.27/litre. The increase in excise duty amounted to ₹7.98/litre on petrol and ₹6.70/litre on diesel.
“Many of the remaining costs like excise duty, BS IV premium, marketing cost and margins are specific costs which do not increase/decrease with variation in international price,” Pradhan stated. The Minister said that that the refinery transfer price of petrol and diesel constitutes for 48 per cent and 68 per cent, respectively, of their retail selling price.
Gas pricing On the issue of variation in gas pricing, the Minister informed the Rajya Sabha that the Government has approved a proposal for pooling of domestic gas with imported gas to supply it at a uniform delivered cost to all the grid connected fertiliser plants for urea production.