Petrol, diesel prices rise 35 paise, hit new highs

Petrol and diesel rates have risen again on the back of a surge in global crude price that has risen above $ 60 barrel now.

The oil marketing companies on Tuesday decided to break their three-day pause to increase petrol and diesel prices by a sharp 35 paise per litre.

With this, the retail price of diesel has increased to Rs 77.48 a litre in Delhi while petrol prices have surged to a new high level of Rs 87.30 a litre in the capital.

Across the country as well the fuel prices increased by over 30 paise per litre with actual rise varying state to state depending on the level of local taxes on the two petroleum products.

Though firm global crude and product price is the reason for the increase in retail price of petrol and diesel, it is interesting to note that even though crude has been hovering just over $55 a barrel for a long time earlier, OMCs had gone in for both a pause in price of auto fuels as well increase in its retail prices on the consecutive days.

Crude price have remained firm for the last few weeks in the wake of unilateral production cuts announced by Saudi Arabia and a pick up in consumption in all major economies globally.

The petrol and diesel prices have increased 13 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 3.59 and Rs 3.61 per litre respectively so far this year.