New Delhi: The government has extended the restrictions on the export of petrol and diesel to ensure the availability of refined fuel in the domestic market, said a government notification on Sunday. The notification also said that oil refiners must sell at least 50 percent of their annual volume of petrol exports and 30 percent of their diesel exports in the domestic market till the end of FY23. The latest notification did not emphasise on how long the curbs would remain in place.

Some reports suggested that the move was aimed at discouraging the import of Russian oil for export to other nations, including many EU countries, by private oil companies like Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy. The curbs were first put in place after the Russia-Ukraine war that started on February 24 as these non-state refiners started taking advantage of cheap oil coming from Russia to garner maximum profit. Further, these reports also stated that the private refiners did not focus on increasing domestic sales which forced oil PSUs to meet domestic demand by selling fuel at lower and government-capped prices.

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