Petrol price hiked by 82 paisa a litre, diesel by 61 paisa on firming global oil prices

Petrol price was on Sunday hiked by 82 paisa per litre and price of diesel by 61 paisa, reversing the declining trend of the last six months. The increase in petrol and diesel prices, effective from Sunday midnight, is the first hike since August 2014 and follows firming global oil prices.

A litre of petrol in the national capital will cost Rs 57.31 from Monday as against Rs 56.49 currently while diesel will cost Rs 46.62 a litre as against Rs 46.01 at present, oil companies announced in the capital city on Sunday.

There has been a steep rise in international prices of both the fuels and the Rupee-US dollar exchange rate has also depreciated slightly since the last price revision. The combined impact of both these factors warrants increase in Retail Selling Prices of both Petrol and Diesel, said Indian Oil Corp, the country's largest fuel retailer.

The movement of prices in international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be closely monitored and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes, the IOC statement said.

Prices of petrol and diesel were last revised downwards on February 4 by Rs 2.42 per litre and Rs 2.25 per litre respectively. This decrease in prices was effected on the back of declining oil prices in the international market.

Prior to Sunday's hike, petrol price had been cut on 10 occasions since August and diesel six times since October. Even after Sunday's increase, petrol price is the lowest since September 2010 while diesel is cheapest since March 2013.

Cumulatively, petrol price had been cut by Rs 17.11 per litre in ten reductions since August and diesel by Rs 12.96 a litre since its deregulation in October. The reduction would have been bigger but for four consecutive excise duty hikes since November totalling Rs 7.75 a litre on petrol and Rs 7.50 on diesel.