The rise in the prices of petrol and diesel has paused for the last three days as oil marketing companies (OMCs) have decided to wait and watch the developments in the global oil market before finalizing their India retail strategy.
The OMCs kept the pump price of petrol and diesel unchanged on Tuesday. With this, petrol continues to be priced at Rs 91.17 a liter and diesel Rs 81.47 a liter in the national capital.
Across the country as well, petrol and diesel prices remain unchanged.
Sources in OMCs said that the price pause on Tuesday followed the subdued movement in the product price in global markets. The crude oil, which has been on fire for the last couple of weeks, has also shown some downward movement lately, staying at less than $63 a barrel now.
Petrol and diesel prices have been rising continuously since February 9. In the 14 increases since then, prices have gone up by Rs 4.22 per liter for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 4.34 a liter in Delhi.
The increase in the previous weeks has taken petrol past the historic high levels of Rs 100 a liter in several cities across the country.
In Mumbai, petrol prices are just Rs 2.4 per liter short (Rs 97.57 a liter) of touching the three-figure mark of Rs 100 per liter for the very first time ever. Diesel prices in the city are closing on Rs 90 a liter (Rs 88.60 a liter).
In all the other metros, petrol is over Rs 90 a liter-mark, while diesel is well over Rs 80 a liter. Premium petrol had crossed Rs 100 per liter mark in several cities in 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.
Petrol and diesel prices have increased 26 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 7.46 and Rs 7.60 per liter, respectively, so far this year.
Oil company 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 the OMCs from making a loss on the sale of auto fuels.
