Petrol and diesel prices were hiked on Tuesday after remaining unchanged for two days.
According to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers, petrol price was increased by 34–35 paise, while diesel was hiked by 35–38 paise.
With this increase, petrol is now priced at Rs 90.93 per litre and diesel at Rs Rs 81.32 per litre in the national capital.
In Mumbai, petrol price rose to Rs 97.34 per litre, and diesel was priced at Rs 88.44 per litre.
In Chennai, petrol is retailing at Rs 92.90 a litre, while diesel price peaked at Rs 86.31 a litre.
However, in Kolkata, petrol is available at Rs 91.12 a litre, down 66 paise compared with yesterday’s price of Rs 91.78 a litre, and a litre of diesel will cost Rs 84.20. On Sunday, West Bengal government reduced VAT (value-added tax) by Re 1 per litre on petrol and diesel.
In all other metros, a litre of petrol is over the Rs-90 mark, while diesel is well over Rs 80 a litre. Premium petrol had crossed Rs 100 per litre in several cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra a few days back.
The steady fuel price has followed the softening of global oil prices (both product and crude) in the last few days. After crossing $65 a barrel in the previous week, it is around $63 a barrel now.
Since fuel prices are benchmarked to a 15-day rolling average of global refined products' prices and dollar exchange rate, pump prices can be expected to remain northbound over the next few days even if crude hovers at the current level or falls.
Petrol and diesel prices have increased 24 times in 2021 with the two auto fuel rates increasing by Rs 6.87 and Rs 7.10 per litre respectively so far this year.
Oil company executives said petrol and diesel prices may increase further in the coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making losses on sale of auto fuels.
(With inputs from agencies)
