Petrol, Diesel Prices Hiked, Daily Revisions In Five Cities From Today

Diesel price was on Sunday hiked by 44 paise per litre while petrol rate was increased by a marginal 1 paisa per litre (excluding state levies) on Monday. Also, petrol and diesel prices will be revised on a daily basis from Monday in select towns in sync with global rates, much like it happens in most advanced markets. State-owned fuel retailers will launch a pilot for daily price revision in five select cities and gradually extend it to other parts of the country.

Petrol now costs Rs. 68.09 per litre in Delhi, Rs. 70.68 per litre in Kolkata, Rs. 77.46 per litre in Mumbai and Rs. 71.17 per litre in Chennai, while diesel costs Rs. 57.35 per litre, Rs. 59.61 per litre, Rs. 63.12 per litre and Rs. 60.71 per litre in these cities, respectively, said Indian Oil Corporation – which is the country’s largest fuel retailer.

The prices of both fuels were last revised on April 16, when petrol was made more expensive by Rs. 1.39 per litre and diesel by Rs. 1.04 a litre.

Petrol and diesel prices are de-regulated in India – which means they are linked to market rates. Currently, state-run fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, which own more than 95 per cent of the nearly 58,000 petrol pumps in the country, revise petrol and diesel prices every fortnight based on global oil prices and the foreign exchange rate. Instead of using fortnightly average, pump rates will reflect daily movement in international oil prices and rupee-dollar fluctuations.

“The current level of international product prices of petrol & diesel and rupee-dollar exchange rate warrant increase in selling price of Petrol and Diesel…In addition to this, daily revision of prices of Petrol and Diesel is being implemented on pilot basis, in the cities of Chandigarh, Jamshedpur, Puducherry District, Udaipur and Vizag w.e.f 1st May 2017,” Indian Oil Corporation said in a statement.

Fuel prices would change every midnight in five cities – Puducherry, Vizag, Udaipur, Jamshedpur and Chandigarh, Indian Oil Corporation said.

Indian Oil Corporation also announced the fuel prices effective for Monday for these five cities. Petrol will cost Rs. 67.65 per litre in Chandigarh, Rs. 69.33 a litre in Jamshedpur, Rs. 66.02 a litre in Puducherry, Rs. 70.57 a litre in Udaipur and Rs. 72.68 a litre in Vizag, while diesel rate will be Rs. 57.74, Rs. 60.26, Rs. 58.68, Rs. 61.23 and Rs. 62.81, respectively.

“The movement of prices in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes,” Indian Oil added.

Daily price change will remove the big leaps in rates that need to be effected at the end of the fortnight and consumer will be more aligned to market dynamics. While petrol price was freed from the control of the government in June 2010, diesel rates were deregulated in October 2014.

Meanwhile, the government had said last month that it is considering a plan for home delivery of petrol and diesel to consumers if they make a pre-booking to cut queues at fuel stations. “Options being explored where petro products may be door delivered to consumers on pre booking… This would help consumers avoid spending excessive time and long queues at fuel stations,” the oil ministry had said on microblogging site Twitter, adding that about 350 million people come to fuel stations every day.