Sharp jump in petrol, diesel prices for 8th consecutive day

Petrol and diesel prices continued to rise on Tuesday, the eighth consecutive day when the retail prices have risen across the country, with oil on the boil in global markets and both crude and product prices seeing a big spike.

Accordingly, oil marketing companies raised the pump price of diesel by a high level of 35 paise per litre and petrol by another 30 paise per litre in Delhi.

With this increase, petrol is now priced at Rs 89.29 a litre and diesel Rs 79.70 a litre in the capital.

In the last seven days, the price has gone up by Rs 2.36 per litre for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 2.91 a litre.

Across the country as well the petrol prices increase ranged from 26-32 paise per litre and diesel price 30-35 paise per litre depending on the level of local taxes on the two petroleum products.

In Mumbai, petrol price is just Rs 4 per litre short (Rs 95.75 a litre) touching the three digit mark of Rs 100 per litre for the very first ever anywhere in the country. Diesel prices in the city are closing on Rs 90 a litre (Rs 86.72 a litre).

In all other metros, petrol is over Rs 90 a litre mark while diesel is well over Rs 80 a litre barring Delhi.

Premium petrol has crossed Rs 100 per litre mark in several cities of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and very close to the levels in Maharashtra.

The increase on Tuesday has followed the firming global oil prices (both product and crude) that have maintained a record streak of gains in past few days with crude reaching over $ 63.5 a barrel mark (single day gain over 2 per cent).

But experts said that fresh lockdown in various parts of the globe on new coronavirus strain may impact demand and push down prices soon. Also, Saudi Arabia unilateral production cuts may also be withdrawn post March putting downward pressure on oil prices.

The petrol and diesel prices have increased 20 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 5.58 and Rs 5.83 per litre respectively so far this year.

The last few increases in pump prices in petrol and diesel has taken its price to record levels across the country in all major metro cities and other towns. The last time the retail price of auto fuels were closer to current levels was on October 4, 2018 when crude prices had shot up up $ 80 a barrel.