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Though the government is facing flak for the rising prices of petroleum products, India is among those countries in the world where the prices of petroleum products are at lower end.
According to a recent policy research paper by the World Bank, for key petroleum products, the lowest prices were found in República Bolivariana de Venezuela and Egypt, closely followed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq for gasoline and diesel, Indonesia and India for kerosene, and Iraq and Bolivia for LPG.
República Bolivariana de Venezuela stands out as having petroleum product prices far lower than in any other country, with the exception of LPG, for which the official price in Egypt was even lower.
The study, “Petroleum Product Pricing and Complementary Policies -- Experience of 65 Developing Countries Since 2009”, says that about two-thirds of the study countries have kept domestic prices below market-clearing levels for one or more fuels in the past three years, subsidizing consumers. It adds that with the additional burden sharing by the oil and gas companies included, fuel subsidies sum amounts to about 2% of the GDP.
Notifying the different prices by end use in LPG, the report said the differences in unit prices have been as large as 280% favoring LPG sold in small cylinders in India, 220% in Tunisia, 175% in Indonesia, and 170% in Thailand.
Meanwhile, according to PPAC too, the prices of LPG and kerosene in India is lowest compared to the neighbouring countries. While kerosene prices in India are at Rs 14.79, that of Pakistan is Rs 56.05, Bangladesh is Rs 40.82, Sri Lanka is Rs 44.62 and Nepal is Rs 60.41.
On the other hand, the prices of LPG for 14.2 kilo gram cylinder in India is Rs 410.5 compared to Rs 919.6 in Pakistan, Rs 533.21 in Bangladesh, Rs 1,151.4 in Sri Lanka and Rs 911.86 in Nepal.
OMCs in India are suffering under-recovery on sale of diesel of Rs 6.52 per litre, kerosene of Rs 30.49 per litre and LPG of Rs 434.50 per cylinder.
During the April to December period, the under recovery on diesel stood at Rs 73,815 crore, kerosene at Rs 21,891 crore and LPG at Rs 29,148 crore.
