Prices of gasoline and diesel have risen for the fourth time in five days.

  • March 26, 2022, 11:55 a.m.

Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each today, the fourth increase in five days as oil firms passed on to consumers the spike in the cost of raw materials.

Petrol in Delhi will now cost 98.61 per litre as against 97.81 previously, while diesel rates have gone up from 89.07 per litre to 89.87, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.

All the four increases since the end of a four-and-a-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22 have been of 80 paise a litre. These increases are the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was started in June 2017.

In four increases, petrol and diesel prices have gone up by 3.20 a litre.

Prices have been on a freeze since November 4 ahead of the assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab--a period during which the cost of raw materials (crude oil) soared by about USD 30 per barrel.

The rate revision was expected soon after assembly elections ended on March 10, but it was put off.

Oil companies, who did not revise petrol and diesel rates for a record 137 days despite the price of crude oil (the raw material for producing fuel) rising to USD 117 per barrel compared to around USD 82 in early November, are now passing on to consumers the required increase in stages.

Moody's Investor Services on Thursday stated that state-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) together lost around USD 2.25 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the election period.

Oil companies "will need to raise diesel prices by ₹ 13.1-24.9 per litre and ₹ 10.6-22.3 a litre on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of USD 100-120 per barrel," according to Kotak Institutional Equities.

CRISIL Research said a ₹ 9-12 per litre increase in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average USD 100 per barrel crude oil and ₹ 15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to USD 110-120.

Author : Rajdhani Delhi Representative

Rajdhani delhi representative

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