New Delhi, May 30 (TIWN) At least in the oil sector, the global health emergency posed by the spread of the novel coronavirus has come to the country's advantage.

India's oil import bill has fallen close to 10 per cent in FY20 as the increasing spread of coronavirus and demand squeeze globally has depressed the crude oil prices to about 30 a barrel now against a high of over $ 70 a barrel in September and again in January this year.  According to provisional data from Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), in FY20 India's oil import bill slipped to $ 101.4 billion from a level of $ 111.9 billion in previous fiscal FY19. 

The lower import bill last year came even as quantum of imports increased marginally to 227 million tonnes (MT) from 226.5 MT reported in the previous fiscal. The fall has come mainly on account of generally lower crude oil price in FY20 with the sharp decline of over 50 per cent witnessed in March.  The low oil price of around $20 a barrel in April, and expectation that crude may average between $30-40 a barrel in FY21, country's oil import bill could reach its all time low levels in many many years in current fiscal. The potential is it could fall to $ 64 billion in FY 21, the same as FY 16 when crude prices slipped below $26 a barrel.