Fuel price hike update Day 17: Petrol and diesel prices hiked by 20 paise and 55 paise per litre respectively
Adding to the already burdened issues are the rising fuel prices. Today is the 17th day that the oil companies have increased the fuel prices, which have gone up by 20 paise per litre for petrol and 55 paise per litre for diesel. As per yesterday's prices, petrol in Delhi was Rs. 79.56 per litre while diesel was Rs 78.55 per litre. With today's hike, in Delhi, petrol and diesel are priced at Rs 79.76 per litre and Rs 79.40 per litre. The same in Kolkata are Rs 81.45 per litre for petrol and Rs 74.63 per litre for diesel, whereas in Chennai you have to shell out Rs 83.04 per litre for petrol and Rs 76.77 per litre for diesel. Cumulative increase in these 17 days have made petrol and diesel more expensive by Rs 8.50 and Rs 10 per litre respectively.
The government has hiked the prices across the country, which will be different at different states depending on the local taxes and VAT applied. Between March 16 and June 6, oil companies across the country had frozen the price hikes. As a measure to counter the losses due to the ongoing pandemic, the government had hiked the excise duty on both petrol and diesel prices, by Rs 10 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 litre on diesel. Initially, the oil companies such as Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had absorbed the hike, however, from June 7 onward the fuel prices were hiked on a daily basis.
The recent hike in fuel prices are in line with that done in 2018, when the peak price of petrol in Delhi had touched Rs 84 per litre while that of diesel was Rs 75.69 per litre. This had forced the government to reduce the excise duty on fuel by Rs 1.50 per litre, also making the oil companies further absorb Rs 1, to bring the total cost down by Rs 2.50. However, the following year, government increased the excise duty by Rs 2 per litre. Even the oil companies continued to charge Rs 1 more.