Petrol, diesel prices inch closer to century mark in metro cities

Petrol and diesel prices in India touched a record high on Tuesday as the oil marketing companies hiked the prices of both the motor fuels after a single day pause.

Petrol price has been hiked by 27 paise a litre, while diesel has been raised by 29 paise per litre on Tuesday. Both petrol and diesel are retailing at record high rates across the country, after the price hike on Tuesday.

With this latest price hike for motor fuels, in Mumbai, petrol price has climbed to ₹99.14 per litre, while per litre diesel price has touched ₹90.71 mark, highest among all the metro cities. In New Delhi, a litre of petrol is retailing at ₹92.85, while a litre of diesel costs ₹83.51 in the national capital.

Among other metro cities, a litre of petrol is available at ₹92.92 in Kolkata and ₹94.69 in Chennai. Per litre diesel price in these two cities are 86.35 and ₹88.48 respectively.

So far, both petrol and diesel prices have been hiked by well over ₹2 per litre in May 2021, after a gap of almost two months when prices were kept artificially low during the state assembly elections.

With the relentlessly increasing fuel prices, petrol price had already crossed ₹100 per litre in some districts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. With the latest price hike on Tuesday, the burden becomes even heavier on motorists.

The petrol and diesel prices have been rapidly increasing since early February this year, post the Union Budget. The reason behind this has been attributed to the increasing fuel prices in the international market, high rate of tax imposed by the central government.

The petrol and diesel prices combine various components including excise duty, freight charges, VAT, pump owners' commission etc. The central and state government-imposed taxes contribute around 60% of the retail price of petrol and 54% of the final diesel price.