Petrol, diesel prices touch their highest-ever levels in India

Agencies

September 3, 2018

Ne‎w Delhi, Sept 3: Petrol and diesel prices in the country touched their highest levels Monday mainly due to dramatic fall in rupee and a sharp rise in crude oil rates.

Petrol price in Delhi rose to a record Rs 79.15 a litre and diesel climbed to a fresh high of Rs 71.15, according to price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

This follows ‎a 31 paise/litre hike in prices on Monday. Rates have breached the previous high of Rs 78.43 a litre hit on May 28. On that day, the rate in Mumbai was Rs 86.24 per litre.

A litre of petrol in Mumbai costs Rs ‎86.56 on Monday.

Prices in Delhi are the cheapest in all metros and most state capitals due to lower sales tax or VAT.

Diesel rates on Monday were hiked by 39 paise a litre, the steepest increase since the daily revision in prices was introduced in mid-june 2017.

Diesel now costs Rs ‎75.54 per litre in Mumbai.

Since August 16, petrol prices have risen by over Rs 2 per litre. Diesel prices, on the other hand, have risen by Rs 2.42 a litre during this period.

Diesel rates had hit Rs 69.31 a litre on May 28, but this record was breached on August 27 and on Monday they hit a fresh high.

Fuel prices vary from state to state due to local levies.

Officials said the spike in rates is on account of exchange rate falling to a record Rs 71 to a dollar, depreciating by Rs 2.5 in a month.

Also, crude oil has gained USD 7 a barrel in a fortnight, driven by fears that the US sanctions on Iran will likely contract supplies.

The appreciation of dollar against rupee has also pushed up rates for compressed natural gas (CNG) as well as piped natural gas (PNG) since the price of gas procured by city distributors is mostly dollar-denominated.

Indraprastha Gas Ltd, which retails gas in the national capital, on Sunday raised the prices of CNG by 63 paise per kg and by Rs 1.11 per standard cubic meter for piped natural gas supplied to households for cooking purposes.

CNG now costs Rs. 42.60 per kg in Delhi and Rs 49.30 per kg in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad. The consumer price of PNG to the households in Delhi has been increased to Rs 28.25 per scm, while same in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad would be Rs 30.10 per scm, which has been increased by Rs 1.26 per scm.

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‘Pakistan has no moral right to question India’s military operation’: Pak Islamist lawmaker exposes own country’s hypocrisy

News Network

December 23,2025

A Pakistani lawmaker has called out the hypocrisy of his country's leadership, drawing a parallel between Islamabad's military actions against Kabul and India's 'Operation Sindoor'.

Condemning the Pakistan army, led by Asim Munir, for strikes on Afghanistan - which resulted in civilian casualties - Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman questioned the consistency of Islamabad's logic. He argued that if Pakistan's cross-border attacks are considered justified, then the country has little ground to object when India enters Pakistani territory to eliminate terrorists.

Rehman was addressing the 'Majlis-e-Ittehad-e-Ummat' conference on Monday in Karachi's Lyari. The town recently gained international attention as the setting for the Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar, which depicted the intersection of informants and operatives within the Lyari underworld.

"If you say that we attacked our enemy in Afghanistan and justify this, then India can also say that it attacked Bahawalpur, Muridke, and the headquarters of groups responsible for the attack in Kashmir," Rehman said, referring to India's retaliatory strikes. "Then how can you raise objections? The same accusations are now being levelled against Pakistan by Afghanistan. How do you justify both positions?"

The JUI-F chief's remarks specifically referenced 'Operation Sindoor'.

On May 7, Indian armed forces carried out pre-dawn missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba's base in Muridke.

Pak-Afghanistan Tension

Fazlur Rehman has been a consistent critic of the Pakistani government's policy towards Afghanistan. In October, during a peak in bilateral tensions, he offered to mediate between the two nations. According to a Dawn report, he stated, "In the past, I have played a role in reducing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I can still do so."

Rehman is known to wield significant influence within the region and remains the only Pakistani lawmaker to have met with the Taliban's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada.

Recently, India condemned Pakistan's fresh strikes on Afghanistan. "We have seen reports of border clashes in which several Afghan civilians have been killed," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly media briefing.

"We condemn such attacks on innocent Afghan people. India strongly supports the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Afghanistan," he said.

A spokesperson for the Taliban regime claimed Pakistan initiated the attacks and that Kabul was "forced to respond".

The two countries have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute since the Taliban authorities retook control in Kabul in 2021, with Islamabad accusing its neighbour of harbouring terrorists - a charge that the Afghan government denies.

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