Petrol and diesel prices were raised for the third day in a row on Thursday as state-owned fuel retailers resumed daily rate revision after a more than two-week-long hiatus during assembly elections in states like West Bengal.
Petrol price was hiked by 25 paise per litre and diesel by 30 paise a litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.
Petrol in the national capital now costs Rs 90.99 a litre and diesel comes for Rs 81.42 per litre.
Rates have been increased across the country and differ from state to state depending on the incidence of value-added tax.
In Mumbai, the price of petrol and diesel stood at Rs 97.34 and Rs 88.49 per litre respectively.
The price of petrol and diesel in Chennai was Rs 92.90 and Rs 86.35 per litre respectively and Rs 91.14 and Rs 84.26 per litre in Kolkata.
Oil companies had on Tuesday resumed daily price revision in line with cost after ending an 18-day hiatus.
In three days, more than half of the 67 paise a litre reduction in petrol and 74 paise per litre cut in diesel prices effected between March 24 and April 15, has been wiped out.
Oil companies, who have in recent months resorted to an unexplained freeze in rate revision, had hit a pause button after cutting prices marginally on April 15. This coincided with electioneering hitting a peak to elect new governments in five states including West Bengal.
No sooner had voting ended, oil companies indicated an impending increase in retail prices in view of firming trend in international oil markets.
Despite the concerns about rising COVID-19 cases in India denting demand, crude oil prices in the international market have risen primarily on account of strong US demand recovery and a weak dollar.
State-owned fuel retailers, IOC, BPCL and HPCL, who are supposed to revise rates daily based on input cost, had raised petrol price by Rs 21.58 per litre and diesel by Rs 19.18 a litre since the government raised excise duty in March last year.
Central and state taxes make up for 60 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and over 54 per cent of diesel. The union government levies Rs 32.90 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 31.80 on diesel.
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