After a span of six months, when fuel prices kept going southwards in India and overseas, oil marketing companies (OMCs) hiked the price of petrol by 82 paise a litre and diesel by 61 paise a litre. This is the first increase since August 2014, following the firming up of global crude oil prices and crossing the $60 per barrel mark recently.

A litre of petrol in Mumbai now costs Rs 64.81 a litre as against Rs 63.90 a few days ago while diesel costs Rs 53.67 a litre as against Rs 52.99 previously (see detailed price chart below).

Fuel prices were last revised downwards on February 4 by Rs 2.42 per litre of petrol and Rs 2.25 per litre of diesel. Since then, according to a statement by IndianOil Corporation, “there has been a steep increase in international prices of both petrol and diesel and the Indian rupee and US dollar exchange rate has also depreciated slightly. The combined impact of both these factors warrants an increase in retail selling prices of both petrol and diesel.”

Before this latest price revision, the price of petrol has been cut 10 times since August 2014 and that of diesel six times.  Nevertheless, even with this increase, the price of petrol is the lowest since September 2013 (Rs 83.62 in Mumbai) and diesel since August 2014 (Rs 67.26 in Mumbai). While petrol prices have seen 10 cuts since August 2014 (down by Rs 17.11 per litre), diesel has seen its price cut six times since October 2014 (down by Rs 12.96 per litre). The reduction in fuel prices would have been more if it were not for four consecutive excise duty hikes since November last year, accounting for Rs 7.75 a litre (petrol) and Rs 7.50 per litre (diesel).