Petrol and diesel prices continued to rise as prices were hiked for 20th consecutive day. The price of petrol is increased on Friday by 21 paise a litre while that of diesel by 17 paise a litre.
According to the official website of Indian Oil Corporation, petrol now costs Rs 80.13 per litre in Delhi, Rs 86.91 per litre in Mumbai. Similarly, diesel costs Rs 80.19 a litre in Delhi, Rs 78.51 a litre in Mumbai. Diesel price for the first time in living memory crossed the rate of petrol in the national capital.
The price of petrol was revised to Rs 81.82 per litre in Kolkata, while the price of diesel was lowered to Rs 75.34, data from Indian Oil Corporation showed.
The Delhi government had on May 5 hiked Value Added Tax (VAT) on diesel from 16.75 per cent to 30 per cent and on petrol from 27 per cent to 30 per cent. Since the levy is ad valorem, the actual incidence has gone up every single time oil companies raised retail selling price in the last 19 day.
Fuel prices have been increasing since June 7 when oil companies began the daily price revision mechanism after a hiatus of 82 days during the lockdown. Prices of transportation fuel were last revised under the dynamic pricing policy on March 16 and there were few instances of price hike later only when the respective state governments hiked VAT or cess.