Fuel prices surge again in India after two-day break

New Delhi, Feb 23: The petrol and diesel prices across the country continued their northward march after two days break taking its retail rates to unprecedented levels while burning bigger holes in the consumers pockets.

The oil marketing companies raised the pump price of both petrol and diesel by 35 paisa per litre on Tuesday.

With this, petrol is now priced at Rs 90.93 a litre and diesel Rs 81.32 a litre in the capital.

Across the country as well the petrol and diesel price increased between 32-40 paisa per litre depending on the level of local duty at the state level.

Sources in OMCs said that price rise on Tuesday followed movement in product price in global markets. The crude oil is also on fire with benchmark Brent crude gaining over 2 per cent on Tuesday to reach closer to $67 a barrel now. It was less than $60 a barrel just a few days back.

Petrol and diesel prices have been rising continuously since February 9. During this phase of price rise (In the last 12 days since February 9), the price has gone up by Rs 3.63 per litre for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 3.84 a litre in Delhi.

The increase in the previous weeks has taken petrol price across historic high levels of Rs 100 a litre in several cities across the country.

In Mumbai, petrol prices is just Rs 3 per litre short (Rs 97.34 a litre) of touching the three digit mark for the very first time ever. Diesel prices in the city is closing in on Rs 90 a litre (Rs 88.44/ litre).

In all other metros, petrol is over Rs 90 a litre while diesel is well over Rs 80 a litre. Premium petrol crossed Rs 100 per litre mark in several cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra a few days back.

Since fuel prices are benchmarked to a 15-day rolling average of global refined products' prices and dollar exchange rate, pump prices can be expected to remain northbound over the next few days even if crude price stabilises.

The petrol and diesel prices have increased 25 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 7.22 and Rs 7.45 per litre, respectively so far this year.

Oil companies executives said that petrol and diesel prices may increase further in coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making loss on sale of auto fuels.