Petrol and diesel worth ₹5,615 crore was imported during financial year 2018-2019 on the back of firmed up auto fuel prices globally. According to data shared by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the country’s diesel imports costed ₹2,483 crore while petrol imports costed ₹3,132 crore in fiscal 2018-2019. This is in addition to crude oil imports that were valued at ₹7,83,427 crore during the financial year 2018-2019.

In response to a query in the Lok Sabha, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said that the country imported 0.7 million tonne of petrol and 0.6 million tonne of diesel during the last financial year. In the preceding fiscal 2017-2018, diesel imports were at 1.4 million tonne while petrol imports stood at 0.2 million tonne costing the exchequer ₹4,850 crore for auto fuel imports. Effectively, imports of auto fuel during fiscal 2018-2019 cost more despite lower import by volume than during fiscal 2017-2018.

The consumption of diesel rose to 83.5 million tonne in fiscal 2018-2019 while petrol demand stood at 28.3 million tonne.

According to the data shared by Pradhan, petrol consumption stood at 26.2 million tonne in fiscal 2017-2018, and 23.8 million tonne in fiscal 2016-2017. Diesel consumption was 81.1 million tonne in fiscal 2017-2018, and 76 million tonne in fiscal 2016-2017.