Petrol, Diesel prices to be revised on daily basis from today, i.e, 16th June 2017. All you need to know about it.

Petrol and diesel rates are set to change daily starting Friday, June 16. On Wednesday, petrol pump owners decided to call off their proposed strike against the daily revision of fuel prices after the government agreed to change the timing for updating the daily rates. The decision to revise fuel rates daily from June 16 is an extension of a pilot that the oil companies have been running in the five cities of Udaipur, Jamshedpur, Puducherry, Chandigarh, and Vishakhapatnam, since May 1. Calling the pilot a success, Oil Ministry said that even the slightest change in international oil prices will be passed on to consumers.

Following is a cheatsheet to all you need to know about the changes that come into effect from Friday:

1. Petrol and diesel prices would be revised every day at 6 am across the country, moving away from the practice of revising rates at midnight every fortnight. Petrol pump owners had sought a change in the timing as otherwise they would have had to deploy additional manpower every night to change the rates.
2. While, the daily prices will be prominently displayed at the petrol pumps, customers can also find out the dynamic rates via sms (short messaging service) and IOCL’s (Indian Oil Corporation Limited) mobile app Fuel@IOC.
3. There is a ‘Locate Us’ tab in IOCL’s app, which leads to a map that shows petrol pumps in the vicinity of the user. Customers can click on the pumps that are marked on the map to find out the rates.
4. Alternatively, customers can check the prices applicable in their cities by sending SMS RSPDEALER CODE to 92249-92249. The Dealer Code of each petrol pump would be prominently displayed in the petrol pump premises.
5. Prices within a particular city may differ up to 15 paise/ litre from pump to pump of the three major oil marketing companies — Indian Oil Corporation Limited(IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) that control over 95 per cent fuel stations in the country. The minor variation in prices will depend on how far a given petrol pump is from its supply terminal and the varying transportation cost.
6. Petrol and diesel rates in different states will continue to have the current disparity in prices owing to the fact that petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, crude oil, jet fuel and natural gas have been temporarily excluded from the GST (goods and services tax) regime in a bid to prevent any disruption in states’ revenue in the initial years. However, the Oil Minister has said that eventually they too would be brought under GST which aims to subsume the various central and state levies that are levied on goods and services, bringing India under a single tax regime.
7. IOCL, which is India’s largest oil retailer has said that it is carrying out extensive training of dealers (petrol pumps) to ensure that customers do not face any pricing misinformation or glitches. “All the 26,000 plus Indian Oil dealers will be given timely information on the effective prices at a pre-designated time – say 20:00 hrs for the next day. This can be set to automatically come into effect at midnight at the automated ROs (Retail Outlets), without manual intervention,” it said.
8. At the non-automated petrol pumps, dealers would get the updated price via customised SMSs, e-mails, mobile app & web portal for dealers.
9. Petrol and diesel prices have been deregulated in India for years now – which means they are linked to market rates. Oil marketing companies so far revised petrol and diesel rates every fortnight based on global oil prices and foreign exchange rate.