Petrol, diesel prices hiked for the fourth day in a row

Petrol and diesel prices have been raised once again. On Wednesday, petrol prices have been further hiked by 40 paise per litre and diesel by 45 paise. This is the fourth hike in as many as days after oil PSUs ended an 82-day hiatus in rate revision.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to ₹73.40 per litre from ₹73, while diesel rates were increased to ₹71.62 a litre from ₹71.17, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies. The rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

In four hikes, petrol price has gone up by ₹2.14 per litre and diesel by ₹2.23.

On Tuesday, petrol price was hiked by 54 paise per litre and diesel by 58 paise a litre. Prices were raised by 60 paise per litre each on both petrol and diesel on Sunday as well as on Monday.

Oil PSUs - Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) - had put daily price revisions on hold soon after the government on March 14, hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel by ₹3 per litre each.

Oil companies did not pass on that excise duty hike, as well as the May 6 increase in tax on petrol by ₹10 per litre and ₹13 a litre hike on diesel by setting them off against the decline in retail prices that should have effected to reflect international oil rates falling to two-decade low.

International rates have since rebounded and oil companies having exhausted all the margin are now passing on the increase to customers, an industry official said.