Exactly a month after increasing the petrol prices by Rs3 per litre, oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Monday increased it by another 64 paise a litre, citing hike in international price of the commodity. At the same time, they downwardly revised diesel prices by Rs1.35 per litre.
Both the changes will come into effect from Monday midnight. Post the revision, while petrol price in Delhi will go up to Rs66.93 a litre, diesel however will now be cheaper and cost Rs50.93 per litre, a statement issued by the country’s retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said.
Giving the reason behind the increase in petrol prices and decrease in diesel prices, the IOC statement said that this was done owing to the fact that since the previous change in prices of both the commodities on May 15, the rupee-dollar exchange rate has depreciated.
Combined impact of these factors warrant an upward revision in prices of petrol and a downward revision in prices of diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price change, it added.
This is the third upward revision in petrol prices since May 1, and the commodity has now become dearer by more than Rs7 a litre. On May 1, the OMCs had hiked petrol by Rs3.96 a litre, while on May 15 they were further hiked by Rs3.13 per litre.
Similarly, diesel prices had also gone up by Rs2.37 per litre on May 1 and were hiked again by Rs2.71 per litre on May 15, before being brought down on Monday.
The two consecutive hikes in May had wiped away more than one-third of the gains that had accrued to consumers when global crude prices had started falling in August 2014.