Petrol, diesel prices hiked again for 5th time in 6 days; check latest rates here

The petrol and diesel prices were again raised on Sunday by 50 paise and 55 paise, fifth such increase in six days. This takes the overall hike in fuel rates since the resumption of daily price revision less than a week back to Rs 3.70-3.75 per litre.

After the latest price revision, a litre of petrol in Delhi now costs Rs 99.11 per litre while diesel is priced at Rs 90.42 per litre, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.

In the finance capital Mumbai, petrol now costs Rs 113.88 a litre, whereas diesel is retailing at Rs 98.13 per litre.

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In Chennai, petrol and diesel now cost Rs 104.90 and Rs 95.00 a litre. In Kolkata, a litre of petrol is priced at Rs 108.53, while diesel costs Rs 93.57 per litre.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.

This is the fifth increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22. On all the previous four occasions, prices had been increased by 80 paise a litre - the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was introduced in June 2017.

In all, petrol prices have gone up by Rs 3.70 per litre and diesel by Rs 3.75 in six days.

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.

The rate revision was expected soon after the counting of votes on March 10 but it was put off by a couple of weeks apparently to not give opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi a handle to say that they had rightly predicted that prices will go up after elections.

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Congress and other opposition parties have criticised the government for the price rise saying it has added to the burden on common man reeling under the general commodity price rise.

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 (Rs 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 Rs 13.1-24.9 per litre and Rs 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 Rs 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 Rs 15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to $110-120.

India is 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs and so retail rates adjust accordingly to the global movement.