Petrol, diesel prices hit new high with eleventh consecutive hike
Petrol and diesel prices in the country have been once again hiked - the eleventh consecutive rise - with Wednesday seeing an uptick by 55 paise per litre for the former and by 60 paise per litre for diesel.
With the prices coming into effect from 6am, a litre of petrol in Delhi has breached the ₹77 mark and stands at ₹77.28. Diesel in the city now costs ₹75.79 per litre. Mumbai remains the costliest of all major metropolitan cities for the two fuels with a litre of petrol now at ₹84.15 and diesel at ₹74.32. In Kolkata, petrol prices inched towards the ₹80 per litre mark and the latest increase took the figure to ₹79.08. Diesel price here is at ₹71.38 per litre. Over in Chennai, a litre of petrol now costs ₹80.86 while consumers will have to pay ₹73.69 for each litre of diesel that they buy.
The price per litre of the two fuels vary from state to state because of different rates of local taxes and VAT imposed.
Fuel prices have been soaring since oil marketing companies resumed daily revisions from June 7 after an 83-day hiatus. Sources have indicated that the hikes are most likely to continue till the end of June even if the quantum of daily price rise falls to around 30 paise to 40 paise per litre.
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The hikes have given rise to the speculation that some parts of the country may see the two fuel hitting the unimaginable ₹100 per litre mark.
With extremely low possibility of fuel prices being brought under Goods and Services Tax (GST) and taxes imposed on the two fuels by governments being cut back, the price hikes are likely to continue hurting commuters as well as transporters.
While oil marketing companies are looking at cutting back on their losses, governments too are reportedly looking at petrol and diesel sales to help recover some of the revenue loses during the lockdown period. Therefore, even as political blame game has once again emerged over the issue of fuel prices, many believe it may not translate into relief for consumers any time soon.
