New Delhi | Jagran Business Desk: The verdict on five assembly polls is set to be out on March 10. Post that, the fuel prices may reportedly rise since they were on a freeze for past four months due to election schedule. Domestic fuel prices, which are directly linked to international oil prices as India imports 85 per cent of its oil needs, have not been revised for a record 120 days in a row.

According to a report by ICICI Securities, state owned fuel retailers “need a massive hike of Rs 12.1 per litre on or before March 16, 2022 just to break even. If the fuel retailers include the margins as well, then a hike of Rs 15.1 is required.

Amid Ukraine-Russia conflict, for the first time in nearly a decade, the crude oil prices shot up to USD 120 on Thursday, before coming down to USD 111 on Friday. However, the retail fuel prices in India have remained unchanged.

"With state elections getting over next week, we expect daily fuel price hikes to restart across both gasoline and diesel," a JP Morgan report was quoted as saying by PTI.

The seventh and final phase of polling for the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly is on March 7 and the counting of votes is scheduled for March 10.

Russia makes up for a third of Europe's natural gas and about 10 per cent of global oil production. About a third of Russian gas supplies to Europe usually travel through pipelines crossing Ukraine.

India accounts for 1 per cent of petroleum imports from Russia

Crude oil supplies from Russia accounts for a very small percentage. While India imported 43,400 barrels per day of oil from Russia in 2021 (about 1 per cent of overall its imports), coal imports from Russia at 1.8 million tonnes in 2021 made up for 1.3 per cent of all coal imports. India also buys 2.5 million tonnes of LNG a year from Gazprom of Russia.

Rates are supposed to be revised on a daily basis but state-owned fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL froze rates soon before the election heats started to rise in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand.

Petrol costs Rs 95.41 a litre in Delhi and diesel is priced at Rs 86.67. This price is after accounting for the excise duty cut and a reduction in the VAT rate by the state government.

Before these tax reductions, petrol price had touched an all-time high of Rs 110.04 a litre and diesel came for Rs 98.42.