Oil marketing companies (IOC, HPCL and BPCL) on Saturday raised the prices of petrol, diesel again for the third day in a row. After the price hike, petrol prices now stand at Rs 75.98 in Delhi. In other three metro cities of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, petrol prices stand at Rs 83.37, Rs 78.66 and Rs 78.85, respectively. Diesel is now sold for Rs 67.76 in Delhi on Saturday. In other cities of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, diesel is sold to retail consumers for Rs 71.90, Rs 70.31 and 71.52, respectively. The fuel prices started rising from Thursday (July 5) after a gap of 36 days, during which the fuel rates were slashed.
On Friday, petrol prices were raised in the range of 14-15 paise, and diesel prices in the range of 16-18 paise. Similarly, a day before (July 5), petrol prices in four metro cities were raised in the range of 16-17 paise and diesel swung upwards by 10 to 12 paise. Since May 30, petrol prices have been lowered 22 times, while diesel rates were slashed on 18 occasions. Petrol prices fell by Rs 2.88 in Delhi and diesel prices came down by Rs 1.93 per liter after the 18 price revisions during the month of June. The last time when petrol, diesel prices were cut across cities was on June 26 when petrol was brought down in the range of 14 to 18 paise a litre, and diesel was slashed in the range of 10-12 paise.
It was in June 2010 when the central government freed petrol pricing from its control, in other words deregulated it. Four years later, diesel prices were de-regulated in October 2014. Last year was quite historic for the fuel prices since the government allowed daily revision of prices starting mid-June 2017. This enables the oil marketing companies to raise or decrease the fuel prices in tandem with the change in crude oil prices, rupee-dollar exchange rate, among other factors affecting the change in fuel prices.
The central government raised excise duty on petrol by Rs. 11.77 a litre and that on diesel by Rs. 13.47 a litre in nine instalments between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell.
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