The price of petrol, as of today, has hit Rs 90.83 a litre, which makes it just 51 paise short of the all-time of Rs 91.34 recorded on October 4, 2018. Petrol prices have increased by 49 paise a litre over the past two days. Given this trend, the all-time high of petrol should be breached in the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, when it comes to the ‘common man’s fuel’ or diesel, the price of a litre in Mumbai is 81.07, the price differential just Rs 9.76 less than petrol in Mumbai.

The past two days have seen a hike in the price of both fuels. This hike comes after nearly a month as oil marketing companies had kept petrol and diesel prices unchanged for around 27 days. There has been a speedy rise in crude oil prices and Brent crude is currently trading at $54 per barrel. At end-November 2020 they were at S44.48 a barrel, more than twice the two-decade low when crude oil prices had dived to under $20 a barrel in April 2020. But the fact of the matter is that the Indian motorist never got the benefit of lower prices even when global crude oil prices had plunged.