Petrol, diesel price hiked again

Petrol price on Friday was hiked by 30 paise a litre and diesel by 35 paise per litre as domestic fuel prices witnessed possibly the largest rally in rates.

The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of Rs 103.54 a litre and to Rs 109.54 per litre in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

Diesel rates too touched a record high of Rs 92.12 in Delhi and inched closer to the Rs 100-a-litre mark in Mumbai. It currently costs Rs 99.92 a litre in Mumbai.

Prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes.

Shedding its modest price change policy, state-owned fuel retailers have since Wednesday started passing on the larger incidence of cost to consumers. For three days in a row, petrol price has been hiked by 30 paise a litre and diesel by 35 paise - the biggest rally in rates.

This is because the international benchmark Brent crude has soared to over USD 82 per barrel after the decision by OPEC+ not to increase output more than 0.4 million barrels per day, fuel rates are being increased by a larger proportion.

A month back, Brent was around USD 72 per barrel.

Being a net importer of oil, India prices petrol and diesel at rates equivalent to international prices.

The surge in international oil prices ended a three-week hiatus in rates on September 28 for petrol and September 24 for diesel.

Since then, diesel rates have gone up by Rs 3.5 paise per litre and petrol price has increased by Rs 2.35.

Prior to the July/August price cuts, the petrol price was increased by Rs 11.44 a litre between May 4 and July 17. Diesel rate had gone up by Rs 9.14 during this period.