Petrol price on Monday was hiked by 30 paise a litre and diesel by 35 paise, taking the total increase in rates in the last one week to ₹4-4.10 per litre.
The Petrol in Delhi will now cost ₹99.41 per litre as against ₹99.11 previously, while diesel rates have gone up from ₹90.42 per litre to ₹90.77, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.
Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation. This is the sixth increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22.
In the first four occasions, prices were increased by 80 paise a litre – the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was introduced in June 2017. On Sunday, petrol price went up by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise.
In all, petrol prices have gone up by ₹4 per litre and diesel by ₹4.10.
Prices had been on a freeze since November 4 ahead of the assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab — a period during which the cost of raw material (crude oil) soared by about $30 per barrel.
Rate revision was expected soon after counting of votes on March 10, but it was put off by a couple of weeks.
The increase in retail price warranted from crude oil prices rising during the 137 day hiatus from around $82 per barrel to $120 is huge but state-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) are passing on the required increase in stages.
Moody’s Investors Services last week stated that state retailers together lost around $2.25 billion (₹19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the election period.
Oil companies “will need to raise diesel prices by ₹13.1-24.9 per litre and ₹10.6-22.3 a litre on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of $100-120 per barrel,” according to Kotak Institutional Equities.
CRISIL Research said a ₹9-12 per litre increase in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average $100 per barrel crude oil and ₹15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to $110-120.
India is 85% dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs, and so retail rates adjust accordingly to the global movement.
