Petro products demand up 15% in March

India's petroleum products demand jumped by 15 per cent in March on increased consumption of fuel during election campaign, ending 2003-04 fiscal with a 3.4 per cent growth at 107.716 million tonnes.

Petrol and diesel consumption rose about 15 per cent apiece to propel March petroleum product sales to 10.025 million tonnes as opposed to 8.716 million tonnes in the same month last fiscal, according to the latest data from the petroleum ministry.

The pattern of petrol and diesel demand was even more robust in April with consumption touching 6 million tonnes, more than 4.3 million tonnes consumed in March 2004. The final figures for April were being collected, officials said.

Petrol sales rose 14.6 per cent to 0.729 million tonnes in March as against 0.636 million tonnes in the previous year while diesel demand jumped 15.6 per cent to 3.569 million tonnes from 3.088 million tonnes in March 2003.

In 2003-04, India consumed 107.716 million tonnes of petroleum products as compared to 104.126 million tonnes in 2002-03.

Public sector companies sold 92.381 million tonnes products (90.124 million tonnes previous year) while private firm sales were up 9.5 per cent to 15.335 million tonnes (14 million tonnes in 2002-03).

Diesel sales, an indicator of the state of economy, were up 1.7 per cent to 37.264 million tonnes in 2003-04 against 36.64 million tonnes the previous year. Petrol demand rose 4.6 per cent to 7.92 million tonnes while lpg consumption was up 11.4 per cent to 9.3 million tonnes.