Petrol, diesel prices hiked again; Check revised rates in your city
Petrol and diesel prices have been hiked again on Thursday. While petrol becomes dearer by 0.35 paise, diesel by 0.9 paise in Delhi. Petrol is retailing at Rs 100.56 per litre in the national capital and diesel at Rs 89.62.
In West Bengal's Kolkata, one has to shell out Rs 100.62 for a litre of petrol and Rs 92.65 for a litre of diesel. Petrol is now being sold at Rs 108.88 per litre (an increase of Rs 0.25) and diesel at Rs 98.40 (unchanged) in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal.
Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges.
Rajasthan levies the highest VAT on petrol and diesel in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Oil companies revise rates of petrol and diesel daily based on the average price of benchmark fuel in the international market in the preceding 15 days, and foreign exchange rates. International oil prices have firmed up in recent weeks in anticipation of demand recovery following the rollout of vaccination programme by various countries. Also, the rupee has weakened against the US dollar, making imports costlier.
Brent crude oil had surged to USD 78 per barrel as OPEC+ proposal for a monthly output hike of 400,000 barrels per day from next month has been put on hold and lifting of US sanctions on Iran's exports no longer appears imminent.
OPEC+ led by Saudi Arabia linking output hike to extending OPEC+ deal up to December 2022, without any revision in production baselines demanded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has led to a stalemate.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates global oil demand to recover to a pre-COVID level of 100.6 million barrels per day only in the fourth quarter of the 2022 calendar year, while OPEC+ proposal is to unwind production cuts fully by September 2022.
The rally in international oil prices has reflected in rising retail prices in India, which is 85 per cent dependent on imports to meet its oil needs.
