The prices of automotive fuel - petrol and diesel - and cooking fuel liquified petroleum gas [LPG] have been hiked after a gap of four months on the back of soaring crude oil prices.
According to the latest daily prices fetched from Indian Oil Corporation, petrol is retailing 80 paise higher at ₹96.21 per litre in Delhi today, up from ₹95.41 yesterday, while diesel is selling at ₹87.47 per litre, up from ₹86.67.
In Mumbai, petrol is now at ₹110.82 per litre, and diesel at ₹95.
Today, petrol is retailing at ₹102.16 per litre and diesel at ₹92.19 per litre in Chennai while in Kolkata, it is ₹105.51 per litre for and ₹90.62 per litre for petrol and diesel respectively.
These prices can be fetched here.
This is the first change in the prices of fuel since early November 2021. To ease the prices of fuel, the government had reduced excise duty by ₹5 per litre on petrol and ₹10 per litre on diesel on the eve of Diwali. Since 2017, the prices of these automotive fuels is being set daily at 6 am by oil marketing companies such as Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum to correctly reflect the underlying market prices.
However, in Delhi, the state government had reduced Value Added Tax by ₹8.56 last December.
Also Read: Petrol Price: Are State Taxes Higher Than Central Taxes? A Factcheck
While fuel available at petrol pumps may have seen their prices hiked only today, bulk and industrial buyers buying diesel directly from oil marketing companies saw the prices for them go up by ₹25 per liter previously.
The prices of LPG have also risen by ₹50 in Delhi, with the last such hike being in October 2021. The price for a non-subsidised LPG cylinder of 14.2 kilograms is now ₹949.50. It is ₹976 in Kolkata, ₹949.50 in Mumbai and ₹965.5 in Chennai. These are according to Indian Oil, and previous prices can be found here.
The hikes however were largely expected.
Crude oil serves as the primary input to commonly used fuel, and its global prices have risen since late February due to Russian military action against Ukraine. However, while international prices may have surged, the Indian retail prices were not hiked immediately; a move largely seen as a political one in view of the ongoing elections in five states in India.
Brent is a internationally followed crude oil benchmark. It was trading at above $99 on February 24, when the war broke out. It nearly touched $140 per barrel on March 6 in intraday trading. Data from Market Insider shows that Brent is trading at $119.24 per barrel, up 2.44% intraday (2:03 am eastern time).