Pandemic-hit Govt finances gets ‘crude’ rescue, oil import bill to fall

At least in the oil sector, the global health emergency caused by coronavirus is coming to India’s advantage. While the relatively lower global prices helped the government boost its revenues by increasing duty on auto fuels, the demand squeeze due to the pandemic and softer crude prices could help it further by sharply reducing the import bill that may fall to decade-low levels of $60 billion in FY21.

Declining consistently since April, India’s oil imports fell 18.14 per cent (YoY) to around 122.7 million tonnes (MT) in April-November period of FY21 as compared to 129.9 MT in the same period last year.