In what comes as bad news for commuters, petrol and diesel prices can increase from April 1, 2020, the national oil marketer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said on Friday. According to a report by PTI, IOC said that it is ready to supply low emission BS-VI fuels from April 1 and that there will be a marginal increase in retail prices. IOC chairman Sanjiv Singh said that the largest oil supplier has spent over Rs 17,000 crore to upgrade its refineries to produce the low-sulphur diesel and petrol. 

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Petrol price today is cheaper by 6 paise while diesel was cheaper by 5. According to Indian Oil website, petrol price in Delhi is Rs 71.96 and diesel is Rs 64.65.

Even though he didn't reveal the possible hike amount, Singh confirmed that there will be a marginal hike in the prices of both petrol and diesel from April 1 when the whole country will be run on new fuels, which will have sulphur content of only 10 parts per million (ppm) as against the present 50 ppm.

"But let me assure you, we will not be burdening the consumers with a steep hike," Singh said. He added that state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) have invested Rs 35,000 crore to upgrade their refineries, of which Rs 17,000 crore have been spent by IOC alone.

Singh said that IOC is not looking at this investment from purely a return-on-investment point of view. He said that this is a national mandate that the company has complied with. He added that all those countries that moved to low emission fuels are charging higher prices; and from April 1, IOC prices will also be benchmarked against Euro VI prices as against the present practice of cost-plus model.

Meanwhile, IOC has invested Rs 3,000 crore to upgrade its refinery at Haldia to meet BS-VI emission norms, an official said on Thursday. The oil marketing PSU will invest another Rs 388 crore for setting up a grassroot bottling plant at Kharagpur, diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) plant at Budge Budge and lube blending unit at Paharpur in West Bengal.

"IOC has made an investment of Rs 3,000 crore for upgrading the refinery at Haldia for the manufacture of petrol and diesel to comply with BS-VI emission norms," Pritish Bharat, ED (West Bengal, Sikkim and A&N), said.