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Petro product sales rise 8.6% in Feb
By siliconindia staff writer
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Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: India's petroleum product sales, an indicator of economic activity, rose 8.6 per cent to 7.86 million tonne in February this year mainly due to increased consumption of diesel.
"Diesel sales have risen 10.4 per cent to 3.13 million tonne in February as a result of Government banning import of kerosene, which found its way for adulteration in transport fuel," Petroleum Secretary B K Chaturvedi told PTI.
India consumed 2.83 million tonne of diesel in February 2003 and 7.24 million tonne of petroleum products. Diesel demand has been in the positive territory ever since the ban on import of kerosene by private firms was imposed in November last year.
On the other hand, kerosene demand slipped 3.5 per cent to 779,400 tonne in February as compared to 808,000 tonne consumed in the same month last year.
Chaturvedi said petroleum product demand increased 1.4 per cent to 83.68 million tonne in the first 11 months of the current fiscal as opposed to 82.53 million tonne consumed in the same period last year.
During April-February, diesel consumption was marginally better at 33.58 million tonne against 33.45 million tonne of the same period last fiscal while kerosene consumption fell 3.4 per cent to 8.59 million tonne when compared to 8.89 million tonne in April-February last year.
LPG consumption jumped 10.8 per cent to 814,300 tonne in February and by 11.4 per cent to 8.27 million tonne in April-February. Petrol consumption rose 7.3 per cent to 647,300 tonne in February and by 3.9 per cent to 7.2 million tonne in first 11 months of current fiscal, he said.