New Delhi: In good news for consumers, price of petrol was lowered by Rs. 3.02 per litre on Monday. Diesel rate, however, was raised by Rs. 1.47 per litre. Revised prices will take effect from the midnight of February 29 and March 1.
The revision in fuel prices comes on a day when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented a rural-focused Budget in Parliament.
The fuel price revision was in line with global trends
After this revision, a litre of petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 56.61 as against Rs 59.63 at present, whereas a litre of diesel will cost Rs 46.43 instead of Rs 44.96 per litre, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said.
This is the seventh straight reduction in the price of petrol and the second price increase this month in case of diesel. Petrol price was last lowered by 32 paise per litre on February 18 when diesel rate was hiked by 28 paise a litre.
Prior to that revision, fuel rates were revised on February 1 when the price of petrol was cut by a marginal 4 paise a litre while that of diesel was lowered by 3 paise a litre, after the government raised excise duty to take away most of the benefit arising from the fall in international oil prices.
The government had raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 1 a litre and that on diesel by Rs 1.50 to mop up an additional Rs.3,200 crore during the remainder of the current fiscal year.
This was the fifth hike in excise duty since November that cumulatively gave the government Rs 17,000 crore in additional revenue. The five levy hikes total to Rs 4.02 per litre on petrol and Rs 6.97 on diesel.
"The current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and Rupee-US Dollar exchange rate warrant decrease in price of petrol and increase in price of diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision," IOC, the country's largest fuel retailer, said in a statement.
Petrol and diesel prices are de-regulated in India, which means they are linked to market rates.
State-owned fuel retailers IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) revise rates of the fuels on the 1st and 16th of every month based on average oil price and foreign exchange rate in the preceding fortnight.
The revision was due on February 16 but the retailers chose to defer it by a couple of days.
"The movement of prices in the international oil market and Rupee-dollar exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes," Indian Oil added.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
