It’s not India alone! Boiling Brent crude rates hit many countries; check list

India has seen massive rise in fuel prices, so much so, that there was a time where a litre of petrol and diesel were sold at Rs 92 and Rs 81 in many cities of the country, something that can be blamed solely on soaring crude oil prices. Prices of international crude oil has been on the boil ever since the start of 2018 and because India is very vulnerable to this commodity, the impact was heavy and caused fuel prices to jump to new heights. This forced Indian government to slash the excise duty by Rs 1.5 per litre, bearing a revenue loss of Rs 11,500 crore. This was the second time this government effected an excise duty cut - last time was by Rs 2 per litre, which resulted in loss of Rs 13,000 crore in their revenue.
 
Meanwhile, only a few states have given relief from rising petrol and diesel prices by lowering their Value Added Tax (VAT). However, states are still in win-win situation, in comparison with government, as Centre is very much exposed to crude oil vagaries on a daily basis.

However, if that is any comfort, India is not alone! Many other countries have faced the same fate that has overtaken India at the hands of boiling Brent crude oil.

Globalpetrolprice.com tracks prices of daily, weekly and quarterly change in the price of petrol and diesel for 100 countries and its data shows how exposed everyone is.

From the data, it was revealed that, during the past week, crude oil prices continued their upward trend with Brent oil reaching 84 USD per barrel. The high prices still haven't been transferred fully to the retail markets of petroleum products.

Therefore, the world average price of gasoline remained stable at a level of 1.15 USD per liter but the world average diesel prices went up to 1.07 USD per liter.

 
Over the last three months, the top 10 countries, which increased the price of petrol, are - Argentina by 33.7%, Sierra Leone by 33.3%, Zambia by 16.8%, Lithuania by 15.1%, Kenya by 14.5%, Ukraine by 13.3%, Malawi by 13.1%, Turkey by 11%, Philippines by 10.9% and New Zealand by 10.6%.

Interestingly, being more developed than some of the above mentioned countries, India’s petrol price has risen by 7.5% in 3 months time.

India’s neighboring countries have also faced pressure but at lower levels except Sri Lanka, which has raised petrol price by 8.8%. Meanwhile,  China raised petrol price by 3.7% and Nepal by 3.6%.

Surprisingly, Pakistan was the only neighboring country that actually reduced it petrol price and that too by a massive 6.7%.

On the other hand, as per the European average gasoline price was 1.53 USD per liter marking a weekly increase of 0.7%. Gasoline prices also went up by 0.8% in Asia, by 0.5% in Africa, by 0.4% in South America, and by 1.1% in the USA. In Australia, gasoline prices decreased by -0.7%.

In last one week, performance of individual countries, the report explained that the gasoline price changes varied from 16.8% (Zambia) to -2.5% (India). There was an increase in 52 of the 111 reviewed countries, no change in 52 countries, and a decrease in 7 countries.

Gasoline prices went down in Slovakia, Costa Rica, Tanzania, Honduras, Barbados, Tanzania, and India.

India’s petrol price went down last week, as a courtesy of government’s excise duty cut and some major states relaxation in price.

It was revealed that, gasoline prices increased by more than 3% in Zambia, Malawi, and Hungary. The largest weekly fuel price change was observed in Zambia where the government adjusted upwards the retail fuel prices after they were kept unchanged for seven consecutive months.

Coming to diesel, the average price of diesel around the world is 1.09 U.S. Dollar per liter.

India’s average diesel price rate is $1.03, whereas Pakistan’s is $0.81, China’s is $1.02, Sri Lanka’s is $0.72 and Nepal’s is $0.85%.

From this it can be said, that India has higher diesel charge than compared to neighbouring country.

The top countries that have raised their diesel price in last three months are once again - Argentina by 38.4%, Sierra Leone by 33.3%, Zambia by 22%, Oman by 17.6%, New Zealand by 15.5%, Ukraine by 15.3%, Malawi by 14.75, Sri Lanka by 12.8%, Turkey by 11.1% and Nicaragua by 10.9%.

India has raised diesel price by 8.9% in last three months, whereas Pakistan has lowered its price by 10.7%.

“However, there is substantial difference in these prices among countries. As a general rule, richer countries have higher prices while poorer countries and the countries that produce and export oil have significantly lower prices. One notable exception is the U.S. which is an economically advanced country but has low gas prices,” it was revealed.

Differences in prices across countries are due to the various taxes and subsidies for diesel. All countries have access to the same petroleum prices of international markets but then decide to impose different taxes. As a result, the retail price of diesel is different, explained the report.