After a pause for two consecutive days, oil marketing companies again raised the retail price of automobile fuel prices on Tuesday.
In the national capital, the rates were of petrol and diesel were hiked by 35 paisa per litre each. As a result, petrol is now priced at Rs 90.93 a litre and diesel Rs 81.32 a litre in Delhi.
Across the country as well the petrol and diesel price increased between 32-40 paisa per litre depending on the level of local duty at the state level.
Since February 9, the price has gone up by Rs 3.63 per litre for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 3.84 a litre in Delhi.
The increase in the previous weeks has taken petrol price across historic high levels of Rs 100 a litre in several cities across the country.
In Mumbai, petrol prices are just Rs 3 per litre short (Rs 97.34 a litre) of touching the three digit mark for the very first time ever. Diesel prices in the city are closing in on Rs 90 a litre (Rs 88.44/ litre).
Meanwhile, petrol price in Chennai is at Rs 92.90 per litre and diesel at Rs 86.31 a litre.
The poll-bound West Bengal reduced the state VAT by Rs 1 on February 20. As a result, petrol and diesel price in the region dropped to Rs 91.12 a litre and Rs 84.20 a litre respectively.
In all other metros, petrol is over Rs 90 a litre while diesel is well over Rs 80 a litre. Premium petrol crossed Rs 100 per litre mark in several cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra a few days back.
The latest hike in fuel prices is caused by the movement in product price in global markets. The crude oil is also on fire with benchmark Brent crude gaining over 2 per cent on Tuesday to reach closer to $67 a barrel now. It was less than $60 a barrel just a few days back.
Since fuel prices are benchmarked to a 15-day rolling average of global refined products’ prices and dollar exchange rate, pump prices can be expected to remain northbound over the next few days even if crude price stabilises.
The petrol and diesel prices have increased 25 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 7.22 and Rs 7.45 per litre, respectively so far this year.
Oil companies executives said that petrol and diesel prices may increase further in coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making loss on sale of auto fuels.