PETROL, DIESEL PRICES AT FRESH HIGHS AS RATES UP FOR 2ND STRAIGHT DAY
NEW DELHI: Petrol and diesel prices on Wednesday scaled new highs in the country as rates were hiked for the second day in a row.
Petrol price was hiked by 30 paise per litre and diesel by 25 paise a litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.
The increase took petrol price to an all-time high of ₹87.60 a litre in Delhi and to ₹94.12 in Mumbai.
Diesel rates rose to ₹77.73 per litre in the national capital and to an all-time high of ₹84.63 in Mumbai.
Rates vary from state to state depending on the local incidence of taxation (VAT) and freight.
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Rajya Sabha said the government is not considering a reduction in excise duty to cool rates from their record highs.
Rates have risen as international oil prices crossed $61 per barrel for the first time in more than a year on improving demand outlook amid the global rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, he said on Wednesday.
Central and state taxes make up for over 61% of the retail selling price of petrol and about 56% of diesel. Fuel rates had gone up by 30 paise per litre each on Tuesday. So far this year, prices have risen by ₹3.89 per litre in case of petrol and by ₹3.86 on diesel. Last week, Mukesh Kumar Surana, head of India’s third-largest fuel retailer Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) had said that oil companies have little handle to control retail prices. Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) director (finance) N Vijayagopal on Tuesday had voiced a similar opinion.
Relief to consumers can come from a cut in government taxes, they said. Retail petrol rates have risen by ₹18.01 per litre since mid-March 2020 after the government raised taxes by a record margin to mop up gains arising from fall in international oil prices. Diesel rates have gone up by ₹15.44.