Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a liter every today, the fourth expansion in five days as oil firms passed on to consumers the spike in the cost of unrefined substances.
Petrol in Delhi will now cost ₹ 98.61 per liter as against ₹ 97.81 previously while diesel rates have gone up from ₹ 89.07 per liter to ₹ 89.87, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.
Every one of the four increments since the completion of a four-and-half-month extended rest in rate amendment on March 22, have been of 80 paise a liter. These increment increments are the steepest single-day ascend since the day-to-day value modification was begun in June 2017.
In four expands, petroleum and diesel costs have gone up by ₹ 3.20 a liter.
Costs had been on a freeze since November 4 ahead of the assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab — a period during which the cost of raw material (crude oil) soared by about USD 30 per barrel.
The rate revision was expected not long after assembly elections ended on March 10 but it was put off.
Oil companies, who didn’t revise petrol and diesel rates for a record 137 days regardless of costs of crude petrol (raw material for producing fuel) rising to USD 117 per barrel compared to around USD 82 in early November, are now passing on to consumers the required increase in stages.
Moody’s Investors Services on Thursday started that state-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) together lost around USD 2.25 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the election period.
Oil companies “will need to raise diesel prices by ₹ 13.1-24.9 per liter and ₹ 10.6-22.3 a liter on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of USD 100-120 per barrel,” according to Kotak Institutional Equities.
CRISIL Research said a ₹ 9-12 for every liter expansion in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average USD 100 per barrel crude oil and ₹ 15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to USD 110-120.
