Rising oil prices may double import bill in FY19 timesnownews.com

Rising oil prices and depreciating rupee are set to further upset the country's fiscal math this year, with estimates suggesting that the crude import bill in FY19 would shoot up by close to 50 per cent to $130 billion, twice the level what government agencies were earlier projecting. In its latest assessment, the Oil Ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) has estimated the import bill to grow by 27 per cent from $88 billion in 2017-18 to $112 billion in 2018-19. But its estimates are based on Indian basket crude oil price at $57.77 per barrel and exchange rate at Rs 70.73/$. This estimate has long been breached with Indian basket of crude now over $65 a barrel and rising while the exchange rate shot over Rs 71/$.