Oil marketing companies on Thursday hiked the prices of petrol and diesel for the second consecutive day after a two-day pause. Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by around 20 paise across the metros.
Petrol price in Delhi was hiked by 17 paise to Rs 82.66 per litre while diesel prices were increased by 19 paise to Rs 72.84 per litre, according to notifications from Indian Oil Corporation. The fuel rates have now been hiked eleven times in the past 14 days alone.
In Mumbai, the revised petrol and diesel rates stood at ₹ 89.33 per litre and ₹ 79.42 per litre respectively.
Petrol and diesel prices in four metro cities (in rupees per litre):
| City |
Petrol |
Diesel |
| Delhi |
82.66 |
72.84 |
| Mumbai |
89.33 |
79.42 |
| Chennai |
85.59 |
78.24 |
| Kolkata |
84.18 |
76.41 |
| Source: Indian Oil |
Petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged for 48 days and saw a revision on November 20. Since Then, oil marketing companies Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum have raised domestic fuel prices on eleven occasions.
In the past 13 days, petrol prices have now risen by Rs 1.45 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.15 a litre. The increase has been primarily on account of firming up of global oil and product prices following news of a successful coronavirus vaccine. Petrol prices had been static since September 22, and diesel rates hadn't changed since October 2.
Though retail pricing of petrol and diesel has been deregulated and oil marketing companies were following a daily price revision formula, the same was suspended for almost two months to prevent volatility in international oil markets from impacting fuel prices regularly during the pandemic.
But with crude on the boil again on news of a successful coronavirus vaccine launch soon, the patience was lost by OMCs who finally resorted to price increase to cover for their under recovery on the sale of two petroleum products.
The benchmark Brent crude has crossed $48 a barrel on Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) lately but is now hovering a tad lower at around $47 a barrel. It has remained over $ 44 a barrel for most part of November.
OMCs need almost 40 paise per litre increase in retail price of petrol and diesel to cover for $ 1 increase in crude. Going by this yardstick, product prices would have to be increased by up to Rs 2 per litre to cover under recovery on its sale.
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