Hyderabad: Petrol price drops in city

Hyderabad: On Tuesday, the petrol price came down by 32 paisa. Motorists were happy over the development. International oil prices crashed by close to 31 per cent, the second-largest margin on record, after the disintegration of the OPEC+ alliance triggered an all-out price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Retail prices of the day are based on average price of benchmark international fuel of the preceeding fortnight. And the drop in prices to USD 31 will get reflected in retail prices over the next 7-10 days. The fall in oil prices comes at a time when the global economy is already reeling under the impact of coronavirus, which has dented demand across sectors and economies.

"When they want to increase the rate they will increase more but when they want to decrease, they decrease very less. But this gesture would provide some relief to middle class people, as we know that compared to other countries, petrol rates are far higher in our country and we know that totally it depends on crude oil prices," said Naveen Kumar, a social worker and resident of Boduppal. "I am not much aware if the price is decrease or increase. I pay through debit card and make it round figure Rs 100 to Rs 200," said Ramesh, a teacher of St. Andrews School, Secunderabad .

"This change in price is only for few days and once the crude oil price increases, then again the fuel prices would increase," said Shahid Ali, an MBA student of Loyola College.

"It would help us little bit. Though the Corona Virus is rampant in the Gulf countries, production is not cut but instead crude oil rates are being reduced," said Srinivas, software engineer at Tech Mahindra.

For India, which imports over 84 per cent of its oil needs, the slump would lead to lower import bill and a cut in retail prices but will harm already stressed upstream firms such as ONGC. Lower oil prices will also help economy from its 11-year low growth rate by way of reducing input cost for a lot of sectors, according to Rajesh, a stock broker in the city.