NEW DELHI, April 18. /TASS/. India cut its spending on oil purchases by 15.9% to $132.4 bln in the 2023-2024 fiscal year (ended March 31) from $157.5 bln a year earlier, though import volumes remained unchanged, according to the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

According to the ministry's statistics, India's oil imports stood at 232.5 mln tons in the last fiscal year. Domestic oil production did not increase and remained at 29.4 mln tons, resulting in a growth in import dependency to 87.7% from 87.4% a year earlier. During the period under review, India spent $23.4 bln to import 48.1 mln tons of oil products, including $13.3 bln to purchase 26.3 bln cubic meters of natural gas.

The share of foreign purchases was 25.1% of India's gross imports in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, down from 28.2% in the last comparable period. The share of oil exports in the country's gross exports declined from 14% to 12%. Fuel consumption in India increased by 4.6% to a record-breaking 233.3 mln tons in the last fiscal year.