New Delhi: The nearly 30 per cent fall in global crude oil prices can lower petrol prices by Rs 12 per litre and diesel prices by Rs 10 per litre in India from their present prices, said State Bank of India (SBI) research team's publication Ecowrap published on Tuesday.
However, if both the Centre and states are not willing to cut fuel prices, they must not -- under any circumstances -- raise excise duty.
"Rather the additional revenue accruing to the Centre can be spent on providing relief to people at the lower strata who will lose income because of shutdown of commercial activity in states as novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads," said Ecowrap.
At the same time, there is a need to revive consumer demand. "This may be done through an employment-generating package targeting the efforts to contain the spread of virus," said the report authored by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser at SBI.
As the number of cases of COVID-19 in India rise, the economic impact is expected to accrue from supply chain risk which may link up with exports as in pharmaceutical sectors.
