Petrol and Diesel Prices Rise Despite Centre’s Fuel Price Cut

(Image: REUTERS)

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New Delhi: The petrol and diesel prices saw yet another hike on Sunday, days after the central government cut excise duty on fuel.

Increasing by 14 paise, petrol in Delhi will now be available at Rs 81.82 per litre and diesel will be sold at Rs 73.53 after a hike of 29 paise. In Mumbai, petrol and diesel prices are Rs 87.29 (increase by Rs 0.14) and Rs 77.06 (increase by Rs 0.31), respectively.
The central government on Thursday gave relief to masses from skyrocketing fuel prices and cut petrol and diesel rates by Rs 2.50 a litre with effect from midnight.

The decision was announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley after he held a closed-door meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The Centre has reduced central excise duties by Rs 1.50 a litre while oil marketing companies have been asked to absorb Re 1 a litre, Jaitley said.
He also asked the states to match the cut announced by the Centre to give further relief and 13 BJP-ruled states – Gujarat, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Chhatishgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura – soon followed suit, bringing the total relief to consumers there to Rs 5. Maharashtra, meanwhile, only matched the price cut of Rs 2.50 per litre for petrol while Jharkhand cut prices only for diesel.

The move was seen as a reversal of a 2014 decision to scrap regulated fuel prices — a regime that was blamed for deterring state oil marketing firms from expanding and for choking off investment in domestic oil fields by India’s biggest oil producer.

PM Modi freed up the price of diesel in October 2014 after a decade of regulation, saying it would encourage competition among vehicle fuel retailers and enhance efficiency in oil company services.

Experts said it was one of his most far reaching reforms after previous governments failed to free the price of diesel, India’s most widely used transport fuel. Petrol prices were freed up by the former government of the Congress party in 2010.