Beyond the fuel bill: Why MSMEs and businesses need to rethink energy resilience

In an increasingly volatile global energy environment, fuel is no longer simply an operational input for businesses. It is becoming a question of cost control, supply resilience and business continuity. Recent geopolitical disruptions have once again underscored the vulnerability of global energy supply chains, even as fuel-intensive sectors such as logistics, construction, manufacturing, healthcare and infrastructure continue to depend on uninterrupted availability. This is where technology-led fuel management is gaining greater relevance. Repos Energy, which works on digitising and managing the fuel lifecycle, from procurement and storage to consumption monitoring and payments, operates in this emerging space. In an interaction with The Economic Times Digital, Aditi Bhosale Walunj, Founder of Repos Energy, discusses why businesses, particularly MSMEs, need to move beyond treating fuel as a routine commodity expense and towards a more data-driven approach to managing one of their critical operating inputs. Edited inputs:

ET: Fuel is often treated as a routine operating expense rather than a strategic business function. Why do you believe Indian businesses, particularly MSMEs, need to rethink fuel management today? What is the cost of not doing so?

Fuel is treated as a commodity, so it gets managed like one. It sits split across procurement, stores, operations and finance, and nobody owns it end to end. Every other major input in a business—whether people, materials or capital—runs on a system that can be opened and checked. Fuel usually runs on a phone call, a dip reading and a paper slip.


That worked when fuel prices were relatively stable. It does not work when energy markets become volatile. Since February, the Indian crude basket has moved from around $69 a barrel to well above $100 at different points, while businesses have had to contend with changing fuel costs and supply risks. When the input price is that volatile, businesses that cannot measure consumption cannot respond effectively to it either.

The cost of inaction is rarely a single visible number. It shows up as pilferage nobody can prove, spillage nobody records, machines sitting idle because fuel arrived late, and a fuel bill that finance can never fully reconcile. Estimates of unaccounted fuel losses can vary significantly depending on the sector and operating environment.

The deeper cost is strategic. Without data, a business cannot forecast, negotiate or protect its margin around one of its largest operating expenses.

ET: MSMEs operate on thin margins, making operational efficiency critical. What are the most common fuel management challenges you see across sectors, and how much can businesses typically save by adopting better monitoring and procurement practices without significant capital expenditure?

The losses we see most often are theft, spillage and pilferage, and they occur at multiple points across the chain rather than in one place. Fuel can go missing between the outlet and the site, during transfer into storage, from unmonitored storage itself, and again at the point of dispensing into a vehicle or machine. Each individual loss may look small. Cumulatively, they can become a significant leak in fuel operations.

Underneath that sit three more problems: no attribution, because consumption is never mapped to a specific asset; quantity gaps, where billed and delivered volumes do not match and nothing reconciles them; and quality issues, where contaminated fuel can raise consumption and damage equipment.

Where a proper system is in place, businesses can see meaningful savings in their fuel operations. The gains do not come from a discount on the price of fuel. They come from reducing losses once every litre is measured, authorised and accounted for.

On capital expenditure, that objection is increasingly addressable. Fuel management systems are now available through flexible leasing and EMI options, allowing businesses to adopt them without a significant upfront investment.

ET: The recent geopolitical tensions in West Asia once again exposed the vulnerability of global energy supply chains. How have such disruptions affected fuel procurement, pricing and business continuity for Indian enterprises, particularly smaller businesses with limited ability to absorb sudden cost increases?

The West Asia disruption was a useful stress test. India remains heavily dependent on imported crude and on key global shipping routes. The disruption highlighted that the shock is not only about price; for fuel-intensive businesses, availability and delivery logistics can also become risks.

We saw fuel movement restrictions in some locations, refuelling logistics becoming more challenging at remote sites, and concerns around ensuring uninterrupted supply during periods of heightened uncertainty.

Resilience, practically, comes down to four things. Know your true burn rate, because you cannot plan a buffer without it. Maintain adequate and secured storage on site rather than depending entirely on daily external supply. Diversify supply so you are not dependent on a single outlet or route. And digitise records, because when supply tightens, allocation and compliance both require proof.

The broader lesson is that energy security is no longer only a government subject. For fuel-intensive businesses, it is now an operational discipline.

ET: Rising fuel costs and supply disruptions directly affect operating margins. Based on your experience, which sectors and businesses, particularly MSMEs, are currently the most vulnerable to fuel price volatility?

Vulnerability is a function of two things: how large fuel is as a share of cost, and how little of that cost can be passed on. Road transport and logistics sit near the top because fuel accounts for a significant share of fleet operating costs, while freight contracts can lock rates even as input costs move. Many carriers can struggle to fully recover higher fuel costs.

Construction and infrastructure follow, because EPC contracts carry fixed timelines and penalty clauses, so a fuel-driven delay can have a wider financial impact. Mining and materials are exposed through sheer volume, where even a small percentage variation can translate into substantial monthly costs. Then there is backup power across hospitals, data centres and manufacturing, where the exposure is not price alone. It is availability at the exact moment of failure.

What leading companies are doing is less exotic than people assume. They are moving fuel from an unmanaged expense to a measured one: consumption per asset, verified deliveries, on-site secured storage, digital reconciliation, and payment terms aligned to their own receivables cycle. None of that hedges the price of crude. All of it helps protect the margin around it.

ET: Digital technologies such as IoT, AI and real-time analytics are increasingly being deployed in fuel management. Which use cases are delivering the strongest business outcomes today, and where do you see adoption still lagging?

The strongest outcomes today come from the least glamorous applications. Live-level monitoring tells a business how much fuel it holds and how long it will last. Authorised dispensing ensures nothing moves without approval. Asset-level attribution finally answers which vehicle or machine consumed what. And digital reconciliation closes the gap between what was purchased, delivered and consumed.

These work because they solve for accountability first. Once consumption is measured accurately, everything downstream becomes possible.

Where adoption lags is analytics maturity. Many businesses now collect fuel data but do not act on it. Consumption benchmarking across similar assets, separating a genuine load increase from leakage, and predictive replenishment before a site reaches critical levels all remain underused.

The second gap is integration. Fuel data still sits apart from ERP, maintenance and project systems, so it informs a report rather than a decision.

Our honest view is that the constraint is rarely the technology. It is ownership. Where someone in the business is accountable for fuel as a function, adoption moves quickly. Where it stays split across departments, it stalls.

ET: Looking ahead, what trends do you believe will shape the future of fuel management in India, particularly for sectors such as construction, logistics, manufacturing, healthcare and infrastructure that rely heavily on uninterrupted fuel availability?

First, fuel becomes a managed function rather than simply a purchase. Businesses will expect the same visibility over fuel that they already have over inventory and payroll, and organisations will increasingly start assigning clear ownership for it.

Second, compliance becomes a driver rather than an afterthought. With CPCB IV+ norms for new gensets in force and ESG reporting expectations rising, businesses will need more auditable fuel and emissions data. Paper-based logs alone will increasingly prove inadequate.

Third, resilience gets priced in. Businesses and boards are increasingly looking at continuity, not just cost. On-site secured storage and assured supply will increasingly be treated as risk management rather than convenience.

Fourth, energy mixes will diversify, but slowly and unevenly. Construction, mining, long-haul logistics and backup power will depend on liquid fuels for a considerable period. The realistic near-term opportunity is not necessarily replacing fuel altogether. It is wasting far less of it.