Petrol, diesel prices rise on hold for 2nd consecutive day

New Delhi : Petrol and diesel price rise remained paused again on Wednesday much to the relief of consumers faced with an unprecedented increase in auto fuel prices for the past one month that has taken retail rates to record high levels across the country.

Accordingly, in the national capital, petrol continues to be sold at Rs 104.44 per litre and diesel at Rs 93.17 per litre, the same levels as Tuesday.

In India’s financial capital, Mumbai, where petrol became costlier by 29 paise per litre on Monday, the retail rates remain static at Rs 110.41 on Wednesday, the highest across all the four metro cities. Diesel also costs Rs 101.03 for one litre in Mumbai.

The price pause on Wednesday has come after fuel prices rose consistently for the past seven days taking the rates to all-time high levels. The prices of petrol and diesel remained steady on October 4, but saw a hike after that.

Diesel prices have increased on 15 out of the last 19 days before the pause taking up the retail price by Rs 4.55 per litre in Delhi. The price of diesel has increased between 20-30 paise per litre so far, but, since Wednesday last week it has been increasing by 35 paise per litre.

With diesel price rising sharply, the fuel is now available at over Rs 100 a litre in several parts of the country. This dubious distinction was earlier available to petrol that had crossed Rs 100 a litre-mark across the country a few months earlier.

Petrol prices had maintained stability since September 5, but oil companies finally raised the pump prices last week. Petrol prices have also risen on 12 of the previous 15 days taking up its pump price by Rs 3.25 per litre.

OMCs had preferred to maintain their watch prices on global oil situation before making any revision in prices. This is the reason why petrol prices were not revised for the last three weeks. But extreme volatility in global oil price movement has now pushed OMCs to effect the increase.

Crude price has been on a surge rising over three year high level of over $ 83.5 a barrel now. Since September 5, when both petrol and diesel prices were revised, the price of petrol and diesel in the international market is higher by around $9-10 per barrel as compared to average prices during August.