Diesel consumption fell 2.3 per cent this January as against the year-ago period, even as petrol sales grew by 5.9 per cent in the same period, according to the sales data of leading public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs).
Industry sources noted that lower operations of public transport including state buses and the railways were key reasons for diesel consumption not returning to pre-Covid levels. The prices of both petrol and diesele have also been hiked by Rs 2.5 per litre each in January, due to a rise in the international price of crude and high levies on the two auto fuels, which were hiked significantly in 2020 to boost government revenues during the pandemic.
