Emirates: The UAE’s Fuel Price Committee is likely to announce retail petrol prices for the month of March 2023 soon to be at par with the global rates.

The Committee increased retail fuel prices by more than 10 per cent month-on-month for February 2022, pricing Super 98, Special 95 and E-Plus at Dh3.05, Dh2.93 and Dh2.86 per litre, respectively.

Petrol prices are revised every month ever since the government announced deregulations of retail fuel prices in August 2015 to be aligned with the global rates. The revised prices are usually announced on the last day of the month, but there were instances when they were released on the second last day of the month.

Local fuel prices remain substantially cheaper when compared to global rates even after the deregulation because most of the countries levy heavy taxes on the consumption of fuel. In the UAE, only value-added tax (VAT) is levied on retail fuel prices.

According to globalpetrolprices.com, the UAE petrol price is cheaper by Dh1.84 litre when compared to global average rates. As of February 20, the average fuel price was Dh2.93 in the UAE as compared to the global average of Dh4.77.

On Monday, oil prices dropped slightly in Asia with Brent trading at $82.88 a barrel, down 0.34 per cent, while WTI fell 0.29 per cent to $76.1 per barrel.

Oil prices peaked in the UAE in July 2022 when all three variants were priced above Dh4 per litre due to a major increase in global rates after the Russia-Ukraine crisis, fearing disruption of oil supply.

Prices were on the lower side in the last four months of 2022 due to fear of the global economy slipping into recession.

UAE retail fuel prices in 2022-23 (dirhams per litre)