Prices of petrol and diesel differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges. (Representative image)
The price of petrol remained unchanged on July 6 after reaching a new record high on the previous day, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers. The diesel price remained stable for the second consecutive day.
The increase on July 5, 35th in two months, took the petrol price in Delhi closer to Rs 100 per litre-mark. The petrol price in the national capital soared to Rs 99.9 a litre and diesel was priced at Rs 89.4 per litre, according to Bharat Petroleum’s price listing.
Delhi is one of the two metropolitan cities to have not seen fuel prices touch the Rs 100 per litre-mark yet. The other one is Kolkata, where the July 5 hike took the price of petrol to Rs 99.8 per litre. Diesel price remained stable at Rs 92.31 per litre in Kolkata.
To protests against rising prices of petrol and diesel, fuel retailers in Kolkata will shut operations for 30 minutes on July 7, a trade body official has said. The sharp spike in the prices has also led to a massive drop in the sale of fuel in the state, West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association joint secretary Prasenjit Sen has said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to cut taxes charged by the Centre on petrol and diesel “to check the overall inflation” in the country.
Petrol has crossed Rs 100 a litre-mark in large cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.
In Mumbai, petrol was priced at an all-time high of Rs 105.9 a litre. The financial hub, on May 29, became the first metro in the country where petrol was being sold for more than Rs 100 per litre.
Diesel price remained unchanged and retailed at Rs 96.9 per litre in Mumbai.
Chennai also retailed a litre of petrol at the same price as it was on the previous day — Rs 100.7. Diesel price also remained unchanged at Rs 93.9 per litre in Tamil Nadu’s capital.
Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges. Rajasthan levies the highest VAT on petrol and diesel in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
As much as 55 percent of the retail selling price of petrol in Delhi is made up of taxes (Rs 32.90 a litre excise duty collected by the central government and Rs 22.80 VAT levied by the state government). Half of the diesel price is made up of taxes (Rs 31.80 central excise and Rs 13.04 state VAT).
Petrol has crossed the Rs 100-a-litre mark in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, Ladakh and Sikkim. Diesel, the most used fuel in the country, is above that level in some places in Rajasthan, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
In 35 hikes, the price of petrol has risen by Rs 9.46 per litre. During this period, diesel rates have soared by Rs 8.63 a litre in 33 instances of a price increase.
Oil companies revise rates of petrol and diesel daily based on the average price of benchmark fuel in the international market in the preceding 15 days, and foreign exchange rates.
