Petrol, diesel sales soar on rise in holiday travel

India's petrol and diesel consumption soared in December 2024 as holiday travel boosted demand, reversing the fall witnessed in previous months, preliminary data of state-owned fuel retailers showed on Wednesday.

- Press Trust of India

NEW DELHI:

While petrol sales had shown a year-on-year increase in recent months, diesel has been a laggard since monsoon. November was the first month that saw growth in diesel consumption and the trend continued into December.

Petrol sales of three state-owned firms, which control 90% of the fuel market, soared 9.8% to 2.99 million tonne in December compared to 2.72 million tonne of consumption in the same month last year.

Diesel demand during the month was up 4.9% to 7.07 million tonne. This is the second straight month of auto fuels posting handsome increase in consumption. Petrol demand was up 8.3% year-on-year in November and diesel consumption rose 5.9%.