IOC announced today that petrol prices will be reduced by Rs. 3 per liter from midnight because international crude oil prices have come down from around $116/bbl to $107/bbl since the last price change (16th April 2013).
With this, the current petrol price will come down to Rs. 63.09 per liter in Delhi and Rs. 70.35 per liter in Kolkata.
Currently, the petrol price at Panjim is Rs. 51.48 per liter, and I think this might be the cheapest in the country since Goa eliminated VAT on petrol in their last budget.
I think this is very interesting because a few months ago I remember seeing a lot of Tweets from people about petrol prices in the US being cheaper than in India, but at Rs. 51.48 per liter, Panjim’s prices are cheaper than some US states.
Like India, prices in American states vary a lot, and the state of South Carolina has the lowest price, which is $3.19 per gallon – this translates to Rs. 45 per liter and is lower than Panjim price, but about 12 US states have a price of more than $3.64 per gallon which is more than the Goa price.
This also made me wonder how petrol prices in India compare with the rest of the world and finding that out was a lot harder than I expected.
The best that I could do is to look at this Bloomberg list from August of last year, and then adjust it for prices based on the price changes in US.
Here is what that list looks like:
Petrol Prices Around the World
| Country | Rupees Per Liter |
| Venezuela | 1.19 |
| Saudi Arabia | 6.44 |
| Kuwait | 11.8 |
| Egypt | 22.94 |
| UAE | 25.06 |
| Nigeria | 30.76 |
| Iran | 37.12 |
| Malaysia | 42.83 |
| Mexico | 42.96 |
| Pakistan | 47.07 |
| USA | 46.41 |
| Russia | 49.72 |
| Indonesia | 51.05 |
| Philippines | 58.6 |
| Thailand | 59.8 |
| China | 64.84 |
| India | 65.9 |
| South Africa | 70.27 |
| Canada | 72.39 |
Venezuelan prices are just incredible and they are pretty much handing out petrol for free there. The other countries at the top are also petrol exporting nations, and I wonder if citizens there look at Venezuelan prices and feel envious like the rest of the world looks at their prices.
Let me emphasize that this is not a very accurate list because I took data from last year’s Bloomberg’s list and adjusted it according to the price change in the US, and the utility of this list is mainly to judge how countries are relative to each other rather than the absolute value.
Also, I did a post on how much do taxes contribute to the high prices of petrol a few months ago, and that may be a useful read to understand how petrol is priced in this country.
Update: Updated the Saudi Arabia price based on information sent by Dr. Koustubh Chakraborty.Â
Yes, i also agreed with Paul
Petrol prices in India high due to Indian government just like Kadar Khan in Indian movie Patal Bhairvi where, kadar Khan ek pandit ki langoti nikalkar nanga kar deta hai. langoti tax ke rup me nikali jati hai.
@Manshu, there is also one thing to note here and that is the Petrol is highest priced when you see it as factor of Per Capita Income. Or in direct terms affordability.In US a average household earns $2000 which would translate into Rs 110,000 , whereas in India this average income of similar Petrol consumer is Rs 25,000, so though at same end retail price its 4 times as more expensive
Paul said is right its better import petrol from Venezuela
@Manshu, there is also one thing to note here and that is the Petrol is highest priced when you see it as factor of Per Capita Income. Or in direct terms affordability.In US a average household earns $2000 which would translate into Rs 110,000 , whereas in India this average income of similar Petrol consumer is Rs 25,000, so though at same end retail price its 4 times as more expensive
Very good info. But i was not surprised to see India in the top order in prices…
In a way India is not in the top order since there are several countries after this who charge a lot more, these are European countries. The difference however is that in a lot of these western european countries, you get a lot of things for free like top class education and healthcare so perhaps the high petrol prices don’t pinch them as much.
@Manshu, there is also one thing to note here and that is the Petrol is highest priced when you see it as factor of Per Capita Income. Or in direct terms affordability.In US a average household earns $2000 which would translate into Rs 110,000 , whereas in India this average income of similar Petrol consumer is Rs 25,000, so though at same end retail price its 4 times as more expensive
Looks like we should import petrol from Venezuela!!!
Venezuela is selling cheaper gasoline only domestically. They will export only at higher trade parity prices for refined oil products (e.g. petrol, diesel). It is interesting to note that India is a net exporter of refined oil products
Hey Ankur, where can I read about India’s surplus refining capacity….is there a good report that explains the environment in our country?
Hey Manshu. India’s refining capacity is 215 mmtpa (expected to reach 310 mmtpa by 2016-17); In 2011-12, India exported 60.5 mmt of refined petroleum products. Therefore, surplus capacity is roughly 28%, if we assume 100% utilisation. Surplus capacity should increase further. Here is a link from Petroleum ministry’s website. However, it does not have much insightful analysis. Icra publishes quarterly reports on Indian Oil refining and marketing sector, which highlights key trends.
http://petroleum.nic.in/refinery.pdf
http://www.icra.in/Files/Articles/SH-2013-Q1-ICRA-Indian%20Refining%20&%20Marketing.pdf
Also interesting is our neighbour Pakistan sells petrol at cheaper price, possibly due to strong relations with the Arab countries?.
Could be or they may just be subsidizing it more, don’t really know.
Very interesting.Russia is supposed to be a rich oil producer yet the price is quite high.
USA price also is surprising though it is a net importer of Oil.
That is true sir, I wonder why it isn’t cheaper in Russia.