Oil marketing companies on Thursday kept the prices of diesel and petrol unchanged across the major cities.

Earlier, the Delhi government had reduced the value-added tax on petrol from 30 per cent to 19.40 per cent. With this, petrol prices in the national capital were slashed by Rs 8.56 per litre.

Accordingly, diesel and petrol prices in Delhi stood at Rs 86.67 per litre and Rs 95.41 per litre on Thursday, respectively.

In Mumbai, petrol is retailed at Rs 109.98 per litre, while diesel is being sold at Rs 94.14 per litre. Among the metro cities, fuel rates are still the highest in Mumbai. Fuel prices vary across the states due to value-added tax or VAT.

Diesel and petrol prices also remained static in Kolkata at Rs 89.79 and Rs 104.67. In Chennai too, they remained unchanged at Rs 91.43 and Rs 101.40.

State-run oil refiners such as Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum revise the fuel rates on a daily basis, by taking into account the crude oil prices in the international markets, and the rupee-dollar exchange rates.

Across the country as well, the price of the fuel largely remained unchanged on Thursday but the retail rates varied depending on the level of local level taxes.

Crude oil prices on Wednesday fell Rs 39 to Rs 5,722 per barrel after participants cut their positions. On the Multi Commodity Exchange, crude oil for the January delivery dropped by Rs 39, or 0.68 per cent, to Rs 5,722 per barrel with a business volume of 7,925 lots.

Globally, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading 0.03 per cent lower at USD 76.97 per barrel. Meanwhile, Brent crude, the international benchmark, was quoting 0.05 per cent higher to trade at USD 80.04 per barrel in New York.

(With inputs from Agencies)