Petrol, diesel prices hiked for third consecutive day; check rates in Mumbai, Delhi
New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices on Saturday were revised upwards for the third-consecutive day, further negating the Centre’s one-time excise duty reduction of Rs 2.50 per litre on both essential fuels.
It may be noted that petrol price has climbed to Rs 82.66 per litre in Delhi after rates were hiked by 18 paise by major oil PSUs. In Mumbai, commuters now have to pay Rs 88.12 for a litre of petrol.
In Hyderabad, too, petrol prices are almost close to touching Rs 88 per litre. Cities such as Trivandrum, Patna, Chennai and Kolkata are also paying higher rates as compared to the average petrol price.
On the other hand, diesel prices again hiked steeply by 29-31 paise per litre, taking its rate in the national capital over Rs 75 per litre while the price is close to Rs 79 per litre in Mumbai. Today increase takes the price of diesel in Hyderabad to closer to Rs 82 per litre and is the highest among all the states.
It is worth mentioning that Trivandrum, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Bangalore and Patna are some of the places where diesel prices are retailing much higher than the average.
While the government tried to alleviate the burden of high fuel prices by implementing a one-time excise duty cut of Rs 2.50 per litre, the constant hike in price seems to be rapidly eroding the efforts.
In light of constantly increasing price, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to meet with oil ministry officials today to chalk out pragmatic strategies to counter the effect of rising oil prices. It may be noted that PM Modi will be discussing the plan on setting a pattern for importing oil from Iran.
According to a report on livemint.com, the prime minister is expected to discuss ways of continuing with oil imports from Iran amid sanctions put forth by the United States.
While India imports around 83% of crude oil, it imported one of the largest quantities from Iran. It remains to be seen if the government can come out with a firm solution to curtail ever-increasing oil prices.
