Reversing six months declining trend, the price of petrol were hiked by 82 paisa per litre on the back of rising crude oil prices. Additionally, diesel rates were increased by 61 paisa. Hike in Petrol and diesel prices mark the first increase since August 2014 and follows firming of oil prices in the international market. With this, a litre of petrol in Delhi costs Rs 57.31 as against Rs 56.49 previously, while diesel will cost Rs 46.62 per litre as against Rs 46.01 at present.
Prices of petrol and diesel were last revised at the start of the month as they were slashed by Rs 2.42 per litre and Rs 2.25 per litre respectively. This decrease in prices was effected on the back of declining international oil prices.
So far, petrol price have been cut on 10 occasion since August and diesel six times since October. Cumulatively, petrol had been cut by Rs 17.11 per litre in ten reductions since August and diesel by Rs 12.96 a litre since its deregulation in October.
The combined impact of steep increase in international prices of both petrol and diesel and the depreciation of rupee-US exchange rate mainly led to rise in fuel rates. Despite this, petrol price is the lowest since September 2010 while diesel is cheapest since March 2013.