When crude oil got cheaper, the pump price barely moved

The essentials

Petrol: crude oil and the pump since 2013

The chart sets three things side by side, and it puts all of them in rupees a litre. The gold band is what a litre of crude oil cost, at PPAC's yearly average price and the Reserve Bank's yearly rupee rate. The crimson band above it is the Centre's excise duty on a litre of petrol, averaged over each year by the days each rate was in force, so that all three are yearly averages up to 2025-26. The navy line is PPAC's yearly average price of petrol in Delhi, and from 1 April 2026 the price on each day.

In 2015-16 a litre of crude oil cost Rs 19.01, which was the least of the thirteen years from 2013-14. Petrol in Delhi averaged Rs 61.59 in 2015-16, which was Rs 42.58 more than the crude. In 2020-21 crude cost Rs 20.92 a litre and petrol averaged Rs 80.84, so the gap reached Rs 59.92.

Diesel: crude oil and the pump since 2013

The diesel chart is built the same way. Its crimson band is the Centre's excise duty on a litre of diesel, averaged over each year by the days each rate was in force, and it started this period far lower than on petrol and rose much faster.

A litre of diesel in Delhi cost Rs 21.02 more than a litre of crude oil in 2014-15, and it cost Rs 48.24 more in 2025-26, which is 2.3 times the gap of 2014-15. The widest gap of the twelve years from 2014-15 came in 2020-21, when it reached Rs 52.66.

The Centre's excise duty

The Ministry's tables give the central excise duty at each change since April 2009. On 1 April 2014 it was Rs 9.48 on a litre of petrol and Rs 3.56 on a litre of diesel. Nine increases between 13 November 2014 and 31 January 2016 took it to Rs 21.48 on petrol and Rs 17.33 on diesel. Two more increases came in 2020, on 14 March and 6 May. Together they added Rs 13 a litre on petrol and Rs 16 on diesel, which took the duty to Rs 32.98 and Rs 31.83.

In 2020-21 a litre of crude oil cost Rs 20.92 on average, while from 6 May 2020 the excise on a litre of petrol was Rs 12.06 more than that. The excise on a litre of diesel was Rs 10.91 more.

PPAC's table of the petroleum sector's contribution to the exchequer records the money the Centre collected. The Centre collected Rs 99,068.4 crore in excise in 2014-15 and Rs 3,72,970.0 crore in 2020-21, which is 3.76 times as much.

Since March 2026 the duty has been Rs 11.90 on a litre of petrol and Rs 7.80 on diesel. On petrol that is still Rs 2.42 above the rate of April 2014, and on diesel it is 2.19 times that rate.

What a litre of petrol costs in Delhi today

PPAC publishes how the price of a litre is built up, and on 1 October 2026 a litre of petrol cost Rs 102.12 in Delhi. The oil company charged Rs 69.22 before tax, the Centre's excise added Rs 11.90, the dealer's commission Rs 4.41 and Delhi's VAT Rs 16.59.

The excise and the VAT together took Rs 28.49 of a litre of petrol and Rs 21.71 of a litre of diesel.

What a litre of diesel costs in Delhi today

A litre of diesel cost Rs 95.20. Its parts were Rs 70.50 for the oil company, Rs 7.80 of excise, Rs 2.99 of commission and Rs 13.91 of VAT.

The cooking-gas cylinder and crude

LPG is weighed, so this chart puts everything in rupees for 14.2 kg, the LPG in a household cylinder. The gold band is what 14.2 kg of crude oil cost, when PPAC's 7.33 barrels to a tonne are used; it shows how crude moved, and it is not the cost of the LPG. The teal line is PPAC's international FOB price of that much LPG, before shipping, bottling, distribution and tax, where the saved Snapshot gives it. The navy line is the cylinder's price in Delhi.

In 2025-26 PPAC's international price of LPG fell by US$ 72.68 a tonne, from US$ 605.15 to US$ 532.47. The LPG in a cylinder therefore cost Rs 59.07 less than in 2024-25, when it is valued at the rupee's yearly rate. Crude oil of the same weight cost Rs 39.06 less. Yet the cylinder in Delhi went the other way, averaging Rs 856.15 in 2025-26 against Rs 803 in 2024-25.

It then rose to Rs 913 on 7 March 2026 and to Rs 942 on 7 June 2026, and PPAC gives Rs 942 for 1 October 2026.

PPAC's yearly average is the cylinder's retail selling price, as the Ministry's table calls it. The Ministry told the Lok Sabha: "Under PAHAL Scheme, the domestic LPG cylinders are sold at non-subsidised price and the applicable subsidy to the consumers is transferred directly into their bank accounts." In the years in which a subsidy was paid, a household's own cost was lower than the navy line. On 1 April 2014 a household paid Rs 414 for a subsidised cylinder in Delhi, as the Ministry told the Lok Sabha.

2026: crude rose, and so did the pump price

Crude oil rose sharply in 2026. PPAC's Indian basket averaged US$ 69.01 a barrel in February and US$ 113.49 in March. From March 2026 PPAC weights the basket by the crude Indian refineries import each month, where it used to weight it by all the crude they processed, so the months from March are on PPAC's new basis. In September 2026 a litre of crude cost Rs 69.70, more than in any financial year from 2013-14 and in any month of 2026 for which a rupee rate is saved.

Petrol and diesel in Delhi stayed at Rs 94.77 and Rs 87.67 a litre every day from 1 January to 14 May 2026. Four increases between 15 May and 25 May then added Rs 7.35 to petrol and Rs 7.53 to diesel. The prices have stood at Rs 102.12 and Rs 95.20 since 25 May.

In September 2026 a litre of petrol cost Rs 32.42 more than a litre of crude oil. PPAC's crude price for October 2026 was US$ 120.09 a barrel, which is the average of the days to 21 October.

The Government's own figures show that the pump price barely moved in the years when crude oil got cheaper. In those same six years the Centre's excise duty, averaged over each year, rose by more than Rs 20 a litre on petrol and more than Rs 23 on diesel, and from 6 May 2020 it stood at Rs 32.98 and Rs 31.83.

Terms, explained

Indian basket

PPAC's average of the Brent, Oman and Dubai crude prices in US dollars a barrel, weighted by the crude Indian refineries processed until February 2026 and by the crude they imported each month from March 2026.

Excise, yearly average

The Centre's excise duty on a litre averaged over a financial year by the days each rate was in force, which is how the charts draw it up to 2025-26.

A litre of crude oil

The Indian basket's average price for the year or month, at the Reserve Bank's average rupee rate, divided by the 159 litres in a barrel.

Central excise duty

The duty the Centre levies on each litre of petrol and diesel, in rupees a litre, before the State adds its VAT.

VAT

The value added tax that a State levies on petrol and diesel. In Delhi it is charged on the price that includes the excise and the dealer's commission.

Build-up

PPAC's account of how the price of a litre is made: the price charged to the dealer, the dealer's commission and the VAT.

PPAC

The Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas's own office of statistics.

Financial year

April to March. 2025-26 runs from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.

Downloads for readers and the press

Sources & method

Every figure in this brief is the Government's own. The prices, the crude basket and the excise duties come from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas's own office of statistics, and from the Ministry's answers in Parliament. The rupee's rate against the dollar comes from the Reserve Bank, which publishes it in its Handbook of Statistics.

A litre of crude oil starts from PPAC's average price of the Indian basket for the year or the month, which is in dollars a barrel. That price is valued at the Reserve Bank's average rupee rate for the same period, and it is then divided by 159, which is PPAC's own number of litres in a barrel. For LPG, 14.2 kg of crude oil uses PPAC's 7.33 barrels to a tonne, and the international price of LPG is PPAC's own figure in dollars a tonne. From March 2026 PPAC weights the basket by the crude imported each month rather than all the crude processed.

The years in which crude got cheaper are those in which a litre of crude cost less than the year before, on PPAC's yearly averages from 2014-15 to 2025-26. The brief adds up the change in crude and the change in the Delhi price over those years, and does the same for the years in which crude got dearer.

The Centre's excise in the charts is averaged over each financial year by the days each rate was in force, so that it is a yearly average like the crude and pump prices. The Ministry gives the rise of Rs 2 in April 2025 by its month only, so the brief takes it from 15 April. On that basis the yearly averages rose by Rs 20.76 a litre on petrol and Rs 23.41 on diesel in the six years in which crude got cheaper. With the rise taken from 30 April, the last day it can have taken effect, they rose by Rs 20.68 and Rs 23.33, so the rise was more than Rs 20 and Rs 23 whatever its day.

PPAC's yearly averages of the Delhi prices begin in 2014-15, which is the first year in the answers saved here. For 2013-14 the brief takes the mean of the prices at each revision in PPAC's revision table, which is the method that reproduces PPAC's averages for the next three years exactly.

PPAC's monthly crude prices before 2026 are kept behind a member sign-in, so the years before 2026 are shown as yearly averages. The saved files give no monthly rupee rate for July, August or October 2026.

1. PPAC, Ready Reckoner 2025-26, July 2026 ↗.
2. PPAC, Snapshot of India's Oil and Gas data, October 2026 ↗.
3. PPAC, daily retail prices of petrol and diesel, 22 October 2026 ↗.
4. PPAC, international prices of crude oil, 2026-27, read 22 October 2026 ↗.
5. PPAC, Delhi price revisions to June 2017, posted 1 July 2017 ↗.
6. PPAC, contribution to the exchequer, posted 17 July 2026 ↗.
7. RBI, Handbook of Statistics 2025-26, Table 133, 31 July 2026 ↗.
8. RBI, Handbook of Statistics 2025-26, Table 205, 31 July 2026 ↗.
9. Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 1652, 1 August 2024 ↗.
10. Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 1881, 30 July 2026 ↗.
11. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 3329, 24 March 2021 ↗.
12. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 141, 18 July 2022 ↗.
13. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 147, 21 July 2025 ↗.
14. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 4132, 30 March 2026 ↗.
15. Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3287,, 12 March 2026 ↗.
16. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 4134,, 30 March 2026 ↗.
17. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 135,, 20 July 2026 ↗.
18. PPAC, Snapshot of India's Oil and Gas data, October 2026 ↗.