Oil firms cut aviation fuel, non-subsidised LPG prices

Domestic oil-marketing firms on Sunday cut the prices of jet fuel and non-subsided LPG, while diesel and petrol prices remain unchanged, despite falling international crude prices.

As per the fortnightly revision, non-subsidised domestic cooking gas (LPG) prices were cut by Rs 103.5 per cylinder to Rs 605 a cylinder after international oil prices slumped to near-six-year lows. 

Jet fuel (aviation turbine fuel, or ATF) price was cut 11.3 per cent, and now costs less than diesel. Last month, its rate had fallen below the price of petrol. The reasons behind oil-marking companies (OMCs) not changing prices of petrol and diesel were not known.

The price of ATF in Delhi was cut by Rs 5,909.9 per kilolitre, or 11.27 per cent, to Rs 46,513.02 per kl, announced the OMCs on Sunday. The reduction followed possibly the steepest-ever cut of Rs 7,520.52 per kl, or 12.5 per cent, effected from January 1.

Last month's reduction saw the ATF price slip to Rs 52.42 a litre, below the Rs 58.91 per litre that petrol costs in Delhi. And after Sunday’s cut, it costs Rs 46.51 per litre, and is cheaper than diesel, which sells at Rs 51.52 per litre.

Following the global trend, the price of 14.2-kg non-subsidised LPG cylinders have been cut to Rs 605 from Rs 708.50 in Delhi.

This is the seventh consecutive reduction in rates of non-subsidised or market-priced LPG, which customers buy after exhausting their quota of 12 cylinders at subsidised rates, since last August. 

A subsidised LPG refill currently costs Rs 417 in Delhi. State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp revise jet fuel and non-subsidised LPG prices on the first of every month, based on average imported cost and the rupee-dollar exchange rate.