Petro products a major earner of foreign exchange

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and diesel were the main products which had propelled the exports of the petro products. While ATF exports went up by a massive 138.3 per cent, that of diesel went up by impressive 89.7 per cent. Exports of petrol went up by 27.1 per cent and these three products more than made up for the slide in exports of naptha and lubes/lobs.

In fact, exports had gone up in the year despite a surge of 3 per cent in the domestic consumption of the petro products. While LPG consumption went up the maximum by 11.4 per cent, that of ATF went up by 10.5 pc. While petrol consumption went up by 4.8 per cent, diesel consumption registered a meagre rise of 1.6 pc.

The appreciation of the rupee has also helped the sector in imports. In fact, while in dollar term product imports went up by 12 per cent in rupee terms it went up by just 6.6 per cent. In case of crude imports, in dollar terms while crude imports went up by 15.7 per cent, in rupee terms it went up by 9.9 per cent. Total imports went up by 27.8 per cent in dollar terms and 16.5 pc in rupee terms. LPG imports went up the most by 39.5 pc in the year 2003-04.