Petrol, diesel prices hiked again on Sunday after two-day hiatus

The prices of petrol and diesel increased again on Sunday, May 16 after a two-day pause in the upward rally. On Sunday, petrol price has been increased by 24 paise per litre, while the diesel price too shot up by 27 paise for a litre. The last upward price revision was on last Friday, when per litre petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 29 paise and 34 paise, respectively.

With the latest price surgeon Sunday, a litre of petrol and diesel are being sold in Delhi at ₹92.58 and ₹83.22, respectively.

Per litre petrol price in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata are - ₹98.88, ₹94.31 and 92.67, respectively. On the other hand, diesel prices in these cities are - ₹90.40, ₹88.07 and ₹86.06, respectively.

In Rajasthan's Sriganganagar, Madhya Pradesh's Indore, Bhopal, Rewa, and Maharashtra's Parbhani, the price of petrol has crossed the ₹100 mark with the latest hike.

This is the fifth price hike for both petrol and diesel this week, and the ninth hike since May 4, when the oil marketing companies ended a hiatus in rate revision they were observing during the state assembly elections.

The fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of value-added tax (VAT) and freight charges. Rajasthan among all the states levies the highest VAT on petrol in India, followed by Madhya Pradesh. The central and state government imposed different taxes make up for 60% of the retail selling price of petrol and more than 54% of diesel. The central government levies ₹32.90 per litre of excise duty on petrol and ₹31.80 on diesel, which means nearly a third of the pump prices for both motor fuels.

The retail prices of motor fuels like petrol and diesel in India are aligned with the international crude oil rates of the previous day. International crude oil prices and rupee-dollar exchange rate impact the domestic pump prices as India imports more than 80% of crude oil it processes and pays the price in US dollar.

The central government raised excise duty on fuel to an all-time high in March 2020. Since then the petrol price has increased by around ₹23 per litre, while a litre of diesel price too shot up by more than ₹20.

According to the oil marketing companies, there are two main reasons behind the recent spike in fuel prices. High international crude oil rates and strategy to recover past revenue losses that companies had occurred during 66 days pause in price hike since February 27 because of assembly elections in four states and one union territory.

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