Petrol and diesel prices in India: Revision in some cities, but overall steady

Petrol and diesel prices in the major cities of India remained unchanged on Tuesday. Prices of both petrol and diesel have remained steady over last few months, even as global crude oil prices have seen a declining trend.

Last year in May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman slashed excise duty on petrol by Rs 8 per litre and Rs 6 per litre on diesel, marking the last country-wide change in fuel rates. Since then, some states have also reduced VAT prices on fuels, while some have imposed cess on petrol and diesel.

While excise duty is constant all over India, state taxes could change depending upon the rates levied by the government of those states.

Retail prices of petrol and diesel are made up of mainly 3 components – base price (reflecting cost of international oil), central excise duty and state tax.

The prices of petrol and diesel then differ in states, depending upon several criteria like Value Added Tax (VAT), inland freight, dealers, local taxes etc.

In Delhi, price of a litre of petrol and diesel remained unchanged at Rs 96.72 per litre and Rs 89.62 per litre, respectively. In Mumbai also, petrol prices have remained constant at Rs. 106.31 per litre, while diesel at Rs 94.27 per litre.

Meanwhile, during a state cabinet meeting, the Punjab government decided to impose a cess of 90 paise per litre. Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal also announced a cess on petrol and diesel in the second full budget of the Left Democratic Wing (LDF) government alongside a cess of Rs 2 per litre on both petrol and diesel.

Petrol price has increased in Noida by 23 paisa to Rs 96.76 per litre, while diesel fell by 22 paisa to Rs 89.93. In Ghaziabad Petrol fell 14 paisa per litre, while diesel price has decreased by 13 paisa to Rs 89.62.

In Kolkata, petrol price stood at Rs 106.03 per litre while diesel was at Rs 92.76 per litre.

The price of petrol also decreased in Gurugram to Rs 96.97 litre while the cost of diesel increased by 12 paisa to Rs 89.84 litre.

Oil prices rose for a second consecutive day on Tuesday as US will purchase 3 million barrels of crude oil its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and raging wildfires in Canada fueled supply worries. A raft of weaker-than-expected Chinese data suggested a soft economy failed to dampen prices, with the market instead focusing on higher refinery.

Brent crude futures rose 31 cents, or 0.4 per cent, to $75.54 a barrel by 0043 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $71.38 a barrel, up 27 cents, or 0.4 per cent. Both benchmarks rose more than 1 per cent on Monday, reversing a 3-session losing streak.

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