NEW DELHI: Prices of petrol and diesel were hiked again on July 3, taking fuel prices across the country to a historic high, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers.
The increase, 34th in less than two months, took petrol prices in Delhi to Rs 99.22 per litre while diesel was priced at Rs 89.23 per litre, according to Bharat Petroleum.
The national capital is one of the two metro cities which haven’t seen the Rs 100 mark yet. The other one is Kolkata, where the hike took the price of petrol to Rs 99.10 per litre and that of diesel to Rs 92.08 per litre.
Other metro cities – Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune – had crossed the Rs 100-a-litre price in June.
In Mumbai, petrol price hit an all-time high of Rs 105.30 a litre with the fresh increase in the price. The city, on May 29, became the first metro in the country where petrol was being sold at over the Rs 100-a-litre mark.
Diesel price also increased to retail at Rs 96.77 per litre in the financial capital on the day.
Chennai also saw an increase in fuel prices. The price of petrol was Rs 100.18 per litre and that of diesel was Rs 93.77 per litre in Tamil Nadu’s capital.
Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges. Rajasthan levies the highest VAT on petrol and diesel in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
With this, petrol has crossed the Rs 100-a-litre mark in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab and Ladakh. It is over Rs 99 a litre in Puducherry as well as Gangtok.
Rates of diesel, the most used fuel in the country, have crossed the Rs 100-a-litre mark in Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh in Rajasthan as well in some places in Odisha.
The hike on July 3 is the 34th increase in prices since May 4, when state-owned oil firms ended an 18-day hiatus in rate revision observed during assembly elections in states like West Bengal.
Oil companies revise rates of petrol and diesel daily based on the average price of benchmark fuel in the international market in the preceding 15 days, and foreign exchange rates.
International Oil prices have climbed in recent weeks on optimism of a quick recovery in fuel demand. (AGENCY)
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