Petrol price on Saturday crossed the Rs 100-per-litre mark in some places in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Nagaland after fuel prices were hiked yet again. Petrol price was hiked by 35 paise per litre and diesel by 26 paise, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. This took fuel prices across the country to a fresh high.
In Delhi, petrol price rose to Rs 100.91 a litre and diesel to Rs 89.88 per litre. The increase led to petrol price surge above Rs 100 per-litre- mark in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh, Kanker, Jashpur and Narayanpur districts of Chhattisgarh and Kohima in Nagaland.
The three states are in a growing list of places where the fuel is at over Rs 100-a-litre mark.
States where petrol had reached those levels over the past few weeks are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, Ladakh, Sikkim and Puducherry.
Diesel, the most used fuel in the country, is above that level in some places in Rajasthan, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. Earlier this week, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri refused to comment on the issue unless he was fully briefed.
“Give me some time. I need to be briefed on the issues,” he had said soon after taking charge of the ministry on July 8. “It will be very wrong for me to comment on it (fuel prices) when I have just stepped into this building.”
Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as value-added tax (VAT) and freight charges. As much as 55% of the retail selling price of petrol in Delhi is made up of taxes (Rs 32.90 a litre excise duty collected by the central government and Rs 22.80 VAT levied by the state government). Half of the diesel price is made up of taxes (Rs 31.80 central excise and Rs 13.04 state VAT).
The hike on Saturday is the 38th increase in the price of petrol since May 4, when state-owned oil firms ended an 18-day hiatus in rate revision they observed during assembly elections in states like West Bengal. In 38 hikes, the price of petrol has risen by Rs 10.51 per litre. During this period, diesel rates have soared by Rs 9.15 a litre in 36 instances of price rise.
