Petrol, diesel prices hiked by 60 paise after 83-day hiatus

After an 83-day hiatus, petrol and diesel prices were hiked on Sunday by 60 paise per litre as the state-owned oil companies decided to restart daily price revisions.

In Delhi, a litre of petrol will now cost Rs 71.86 instead of Rs 71.26 while people will have to shell out diesel Rs 69.99 for one litre of diesel instead of Rs 69.39 earlier.

The last revision of fuel prices was done on March 16, prior to the countrywide lockdown and the price was kept on hold since then, apparently in wake of the extreme volatility in the international oil markets.

On May 6, the government had raised the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 and Rs 13 respectively. However, instead of passing the hike to the consumers, the oil companies decided to balance it against the drop in global crude prices.

On the other hand, several state governments, hiked the VAT or cess on fuel prices to compensate for the loss of revenue during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

An additional cess of Rs 2 per litre was announced by the Maharashtra government on May 30. A day before, the Jammu and Kashmir administration hiked the tax on petrol by Rs 2 per litre and on diesel by Rs 1 per litre.

Other states who followed the route were Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, and Jharkhand.