MUMBAI: The recent massive rise in global crude oil prices has now started inflating the oil import bill for India that meets 80 per cent of its crude requirement through inbound shipments. January’s oil import cost ballooned by a whopping 46 per cent to land at $9.6 billion as against $6.6 billion in the same month last year — the highest monthly increase in the past year.
The huge jump in the value of oil imports is attributed to a 15 per cent rise in oil import volumes and a 26 per cent increase in the average global crude price. A ballooning oil import bill jacks up domestic retail prices of automobile fuels, petrol and diesel, apart from impacting the government’s petroleum subsidy outgo and also the country’s Current Account Deficit.
The overall oil import bill for January, including petroleum products, rose 43 per cent to $10.80 billion as compared to the same month last year. “In this connection, it is mentioned that the global Brent prices ($ per barrel) have increased by 25.69 per cent in January 2018 vis-à-vis January 2017 as per World Bank commodity price data (the pink sheet),” the commerce ministry said in a statement.
