The hike in petrol and diesel prices has moderated the demand for the two auto fuels with consumption in June drastically falling from double digit growth in the previous months.

Petrol, that had in April/May witnessed 11-12 per cent growth in consumption, in fact saw a six per cent fall in demand at 8,02,500 tons in June, oil ministry officials said.

After seeing a growth of 15 per cent, diesel consumption rose by a moderate 3.3 per cent to 4.058 million tons (MT), while domestic LPG also saw demand falling from double digit to just 3 per cent at 9,14,300 tons.

The government had on June 4 announced a record Rs 5 a litre increase in price of petrol, Rs 3 per litre increase in diesel and Rs 50 per 14.2-kg cylinder hike in domestic LPG prices.

"The hike in fuel prices has had a sobering effect. While there has been a small shift of vehicles to CNG, people are burning less fuel," an official said.

Oil product demand in June was almost unchanged at 10.51 MT. Despite dampening demand in June, the diesel consumption in April-June period was up 11.3 per cent at 13.36 MT, while petrol demand grew 8 per cent to 2.79 MT. LPG consumption was up 7.6 per cent at 2.91 MT.

ATF however saw a robust 8 per cent growth in consumption at 3,74,500 tons in June and 9.2 per cent growth in April-June at 1.16 MT.

India imported 8.4 per cent more crude oil in June at 10.6 MT while inward shipment of petroleum products was down 27.1 per cent to 1.49 MT. Exports were down 17 per cent at 2.97 MT because of domestic demand.

In April-June, crude imports were up 2.1 per cent to 31.7 MT and oil products 6.1 per cent to 5.7 MT. Exports were down 13.6 per cent to 8.5 MT.