India's crude import will increase: Moody's

India's crude import bill will grow fatter despite numerous measures by successive governments to reduce its dependence on crude.

A Moody's report on Monday said that "India's oil and gas consumption will support its investments in refining capacity and upstream production, but crude imports will keep growing amid stagnant production".

India imports nearly 80 per cent of its oil requirement which makes is highly dependent to imported oil and hence susceptible to wild fluctuations in the international oil market.

The governments push towards electric vehicles to reduce dependence on imported oil was also not seen to bearing fruit in the near term.

Moody's said: "Even though the government is encouraging faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles, the response has not been great because of a lack of high-quality, affordable vehicles and the evolving charging infrastructure".

Besides, the government pressure for shareholder returns will "temper National Oil Company's (NOC) credit quality", Moody's flagged.

--IANS

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