The petrol and diesel prices across the country continued their northward march after two days break taking its retail rates to unprecedented levels while burning bigger holes in the consumer’s pockets.
The oil marketing companies raised the pump price of both petrol and diesel by 35 paise per liter on Tuesday.
With this, petrol is now priced at Rs 90.93 a liter, and diesel Rs 81.32 a liter in the capital.
Across the country as well the petrol and diesel price increased between 32-40 paisa per liter depending on the level of local duty at the state level.
Sources in OMCs said that price rise on Tuesday followed the movement in the product price in global markets. The crude oil is also on fire with benchmark Brent crude gaining over 2 percent on Tuesday to reach closer to $67 a barrel now. It was less than $60 a barrel just a few days back.
Petrol and diesel prices have been rising continuously since February 9. During this phase of price rise (In the last 12 days since February 9), the price has gone up by Rs 3.63 per liter for petrol while the diesel rate has risen by Rs 3.84 a liter in Delhi.
The increase in the previous weeks has taken petrol price across historic high levels of Rs 100 a liter in several cities across the country.
In Mumbai, petrol prices are just Rs 3 per liter short (Rs 97.34 a liter) of touching the three-digit mark for the very first time ever. Diesel prices in the city are closing in on Rs 90 a liter (Rs 88.44/liter).
In all other metros, petrol is over Rs 90 a liter while diesel is well over Rs 80 a liter. Premium petrol crossed the Rs 100 per liter mark in several cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra a few days back.
Since fuel prices are benchmarked to a 15-day rolling average of global refined products’ prices and dollar exchange rate, pump prices can be expected to remain northbound over the next few days even if crude price stabilizes.
The petrol and diesel prices have increased 25 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 7.22 and Rs 7.45 per liter, respectively so far this year.
Oil companies executives said that petrol and diesel prices may increase further in the coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making a loss on the sale of auto fuels.
