New Delhi, June 12: Mirroring industrial slowdown and impact of drought on economic activity, sales of petroleum product dropped by 6.5 per cent to 14.3 million tonnes in first two months of the current fiscal as opposed to 15.3 million tonnes sold in April-May 2002. Diesel sales slid 13.4 per cent to 5.8 million tonnes as compared to 6.7 million tonnes sold a year ago. Retail petrol demand fell 4.6 per cent to 1.24 million tonnes while naphtha sales was also down 16 per cent to 0.97 million tonnes.
The only silver lining was Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) which posted a handsome 8.3 per cent growth to 1.3 million tonnes in April-May this year as against 1.2 million tonnes sales in the corresponding period the previous year.
Sources attributed the drop in sales to slow industrial growth and economic activity being affected in drought-hit parts of the country.
Kerosene sales dropped by over 3 per cent to 1.54 million tonnes in first two months of 2003-04 while bitumen demand improved from 0.55 million tonnes to 0.66 million tonnes this year.
Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) demand remained almost unchanged at 0.38 million tonnes. Bureau Report