The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: India saw a more than 88 per cent increase in its dependency on imported crude oil to meet its domestic consumption needs in the first four months of the current financial year.
Rising demand for fuel and other petroleum products amid flagging domestic oil production resulted in the country’s oil import dependency increasing to 88.3 per cent in April-July, surpassing 87.8 in the year-ago period along with the full financial year 2023-24 (FY24), reported The Indian Express.
According to the latest data from the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC), the country’s oil import dependency was 87.8 per cent in FY24, 87.4 per cent in FY23, 85.5 per cent in FY22, 84.4 per cent in FY21, 85 per cent in FY20, and 83.8 per cent in FY19.
The high dependence on imported crude oil puts the Indian economy in a vulnerable situation and exposes it to global oil price volatility, apart from also having an impact on the country’s trade deficit, foreign exchange reserves, rupee’s exchange rate, and inflation.
Inadequate domestic output has led to increasing dependence on crude oil imports even as its demand has steadily increased over the time.
Back in 2015, the government had fixed a target to decrease dependence on oil imports to 67 per cent by 2022 from 77 per cent in 2013-14. However, the dependency has only increased since, reported The Indian Express.