How to check daily change in petrol, diesel prices

Mumbai: Come June 16, you need to be aware of the day’s fuel price if you want to take your car on the road. Petrol and fuel prices are all set to undergo daily revision by state-run oil marketing companies (OMC) from this Friday.

"The daily price revision is an initiative for ensuring the best possible prices to the customers as well as improved transparency in the pricing mechanism," Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the country's largest oil retailer said. This initiative follows the successful implementation of the pilot project in Udaipur, Jamshedpur, Vishakhapatnam, Chandigarh and Puducherry from May 1.

Indian Oil had said, the three oil manufacturing companies will “establish an appropriate mechanism” to convey the prices to consumers every day. While petrol pumps will be displaying the daily prices, there are various other ways to check these dynamic rates.

Customers can access IOCL’s mobile app Fuel@IOC for the rates. Alternatively, customers can also check the prices in their cities by sending SMS RSP< SPACE >DEALER CODE to 92249-92249. “The Dealer Code of each petrol pump would be prominently displayed in the petrol pump premises," IOCL said.

IOCL also said it would train dealers at 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.

At the non-automated petrol pumps, dealers will be receiving the updated price via customised SMSs, e-mails, mobile app & web portal for dealers.

However, the Federation of All India Petroleum Traders (FAIPT), has voiced its protest against the government’s decision to implement daily revision of fuel prices. It  has claimed that there will bell be "no purchase no sale" of petrol and diesel on June 16.  "Dealers of five cities where it was launched have already burnt their fingers. They are crying at the inventory loss that they have already suffered due the fluctuations in the daily changing prices on the inventory held by them," it said in a statement.

The federation also claimed 50 per cent of petrol pumps sell 30 kilolitre of fuel per month on an average. "One tank lorry of 18 Kls lasts most of such small dealers 7 to 10 days. Any such decision shall wipe out his entire working capital if the prices were to go down frequently," it said.