India's September diesel sales remain below pre-Covid levels, petrol sales grow

The pandemic has hit hard various sectors and a major one among them is the transport segment. This has resulted in a massive drop in petrol and diesel consumptions. The sky-high price of motor fuels too impacted their sales. In the first fortnight of September 2021, sales of diesel in the country were 1.5% down from the same period last year. and 6.8% low from the same period in 2019.

According to a Reuters report, the sales of diesel by India's state fuel retailers in the first 15 days of September was 2.1 million tonnes. The fuel consumption also slowed down in the same period from the previous month as well. The increased monsoon rains hit mobility, and the agriculture sector fuel demand as well. This has resulted in low sales of diesel. Improved electricity supplies too contributed to a decline in demand for diesel.

Asia's third-largest economy Asia is yet to completely reopen its public transport sector. The public transport sector majorly uses diesel as running fuel. This is also impacting diesel sales. However, petrol sales have increased on the back of high usage of personal vehicles.

The focus on personal mobility has witnessed growth since last year. People are using personal vehicles and avoiding public transport and shared mobility for safety reasons during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is improving sales of petrol across the country.

Petrol sales have increased by 5.7% during the first fortnight of September compared to the same period last year. Petrol sales stayed above the pre-Covid levels at 1.02 million tonnes during the mentioned period. The sales of petrol have registered 8.3% growth from the same period in 2019 and 3.4% growth from August this year.

Meanwhile, petrol and diesel prices on Friday remained static for the 12th day in a row. In Delhi, a litre of petrol now costs ₹101.19, while the rate of diesel is ₹88.62 per litre.