Petrol and diesel prices were hiked for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday to take retail rates across the country to new record highs.
Accordingly, in Delhi, petrol and diesel prices have increased by 35 paisa per litre to touch Rs 105.84 per litre and Rs 94.57 per litre, respectively.
Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as value-added tax (VAT) and freight charges.
In Mumbai, petrol became costlier by 34 paisa per litre to touch Rs 111.77 a litre on Sunday, the highest across all the four metro cities. Diesel price also increased in the city by 37 paise per litre to reach Rs 102.52 a litre.
In Chennai, petrol is retailed at Rs 103.01 and diesel at Rs 98.92 per litre while in Kolkata, petrol costs Rs 106.43 and diesel Rs 97.68 per litre.
This is the fourth straight day of 35 paise per litre hike in petrol and diesel prices. There was no change in rates on October 12 and 13.
Since ending of a three-week long hiatus in rate revision in the last week of September, this is the 16th increase in petrol price and the 19th time that diesel rates have gone up.
While petrol price in most of the country is already above Rs 100-a-litre mark, diesel rates have crossed that level in a dozen states/UT including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka and Ladakh.
Shedding the modest price change policy, state-owned fuel retailers have since October 6 started passing on the larger incidence of cost to consumers. This is because the international benchmark Brent crude is trading at USD 84.8 per barrel for the first time in seven years.
A month back, Brent was trading at USD 73.51. Being a net importer of oil, India prices petrol and diesel at rates equivalent to international prices. The surge in international oil prices ended a three-week hiatus in rates on September 28 for petrol and September 24 for diesel.
Since then, diesel rates have gone up by Rs 5.6 per litre and petrol price has increased by Rs 4.30 a litre. Prior to that, the petrol price was increased by Rs 11.44 a litre between May 4 and July 17. Diesel rate had gone up by Rs 9.14 a litre during this period.
(With inputs from PTI)
