Country’s largest State-owned oil retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Wednesday announced the hike of petrol and diesel prices by Rs 3.07 and by Rs 1.90 per litre respectively. The hike will be effective from Wednesday night, the company said, adding that the hardening of global crude oil rates warranted such an increase.
With such revision by the oil major, petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 59.68 per litre as against Rs 56.61 currently, said IOC. Similarly, diesel will cost Rs 48.33 a litre. While the hike in petrol price turns the clock back on the declining trend since January, this is the third straight fortnightly increase in diesel rates.
Petrol price was last cut by Rs 3.02 on March 1. Wednesday’s hike has wiped-off all of
that. The three hikes in diesel rates since February 16 total Rs 3.65 per litre.
In fact, consumers are still to get all the benefits from the sharp drop in international oil prices to a decade low as the Government on five occasions since November has raised excise duty on the two auto fuels.
The five levy hikes add up to Rs 4.02 per litre on petrol and Rs 6.97 on diesel, handing the Government a neat Rs 17,000 crore as additional revenue.
“The current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and Rupee-US dollar exchange rate warrant increase in price of petrol and diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to consumers with this price revision,” IOC said in a statement.
Fuel retailers — IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCl) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation ltd (HPCl) — revise rates of the fuel on 1st and 16th of every month, based on average oil price and foreign exchange rate in the preceding fortnight.