Petrol, diesel prices in India were hiked over 70 times in last one year

365 days, 78 hikes and only seven reductions in price. That is how petrol price was regulated over the past one year in India during which the cost of the fuel reached an all-time high almost every other day. Diesel was no better with as many as 76 price hikes during the same period, with just 10 reductions. The information was shared by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in the Parliament, replying to a question on fuel price hike in India from the Opposition.

During the last 12 months, petrol price in Delhi has gone up from ₹90.56 on April 1 last year to ₹96.72 per litre on July 18 this year. During the same period, diesel price too has gone up from ₹80.87 to Rs. 89.62 per litre.

Earlier this year, the Centre had decided to reduce tax on petrol and diesel in order to offer relief to consumers as fuel price reached an all-time high with hikes almost every other day till May. The excise duty cut on petrol and diesel translated into a reduction of ₹9.5 on petrol and ₹7 a litre on diesel.

In November last year, the Centre had announced excise duty cut on petrol by ₹5 and diesel by ₹10 per litre. The reduction of excise duty came after the Centre increased the tax in 2020 by almost ₹33 per litre on petrol and ₹31.8 per litre on diesel.

Earlier this year, the oil companies ended a nearly five month hiatus on revising petrol and diesel prices on a daily basis. Within six weeks, India saw more than 14 hikes in prices of both fuel with an overall hike of ₹10 per litre on petrol.

Despite hike in petrol and diesel prices, the demand for both fuel remained stable. According to experts, the demand was mainly due to the economic activities resuming post Covid-19 lockdowns as well as increased travel by road during the summer months this year.