Fuel sale coming back to pre-Covid level: IOC official

Aurangabad: Fuel sale in the country is coming back to normal which also shows the normalcy in economy, a senior Indian Oil Corporation official said on Wednesday.

In Maharashtra, the sale is yet to reach the pre-Covid situation and the deficit in diesel sale is still around 12 per cent, Executive Director and Maharashtra State head of Indian Oil Corporation Amitabh Akhauri told reporters here. "As an industry we saw growth in petrol sale in October by 2 per cent. But in November it remained down but this month we are expecting to reach back to pre-Covid situation," he said.

"Since last month, the throughput of our refinery is 100 per cent and it shows that we are back to almost normal."

About fuel sale in Maharashtra, he said that there are limitations in the state as cities are sometimes closed. "The COVID-19 effect is still there as we can see there is night curfew imposed in cities. Still we expect to reach normal sale in terms of petrol but the deficit in diesel will remain," he added.

Speaking about the new LPG cylinder named Chhotu which weighs just 5 kg, Akhauri said the company is planning to distribute it with the help of grocery shops and fuel outlets.