Indian Oil Companies To Revise Fuel Prices Daily, Will Roll Out In Five Cities From May 1, Says Report

State-owned oil companies in India are planning to revise fuel prices on a daily basis and it will be rolled out in five cities from May 1. This means, a customer will be paying a different price for petrol or diesel everyday at the petrol pumps in the country.

Reuters reported that daily revision of fuel prices will be first implemented in Puducherry and Vizag in southern Indian, Udaipur in the West, Jamshedpur in the East and Chandigarh in the north.

Quoting industry sources, the report said that it will be implemented nationwide later this year following these cities. The officials believe that the roll out of “daily dynamic pricing” in five cities will help them identify the problems ahead of a nationwide roll-out of the scheme.

Oil price hike has always been a contentious issue often resultin gin political backlash. As of now state-owned oil companies revise fuel prices every fortnight. The price revision is to reflect volatility in the currency and global oil markets. An Economic Times report said daily change does not mean prices would rise or drop sharply. It would change just by a few paise every day.

The report also says that daily revision will be made possible using modern technologies. Prices will be centrally changed and conveyed to filling stations across the country. Automation at most filling stations will allow companies to centrally change prices and availability of digital technologies and social networks will make it much easier for companies to convey price changes to the filling station. In the past, price transmission used to be a cumbersome exercise with dealers waiting for phone calls and fax messages from companies for new prices and then rushing to lowering or raising their supply orders, causing inconvenience to suppliers, the report adds.

Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp are the state-owned refiners in India.  These three companies operate 90% of the retail outlets in the country and have up to 200 fuel stations in the five cities. Private fuel retailers - Reliance Industries and Essar Oil - are expected to follow their state peers, the report adds.