The oil marketing companies on Tuesday decided to break their three-day pause to increase petrol and diesel prices by a sharp 35 paise per litre.

 

With this, the retail price of diesel has increased to Rs 77.48 a litre in Delhi while petrol prices have surged to a new high level of Rs 87.30 a litre in the capital.

 

Across the country as well the fuel prices increased by over 30 paise per litre with actual rise varying state to state depending on the level of local taxes on the two petroleum products.

 

Though firm global crude and product price is the reason for the increase in retail price of petrol and diesel, it is interesting to note that even though crude has been hovering just over $55 a barrel for a long time earlier, OMCs had gone in for both a pause in price of auto fuels as well increase in its retail prices on the consecutive days.

 

Crude price have remained firm for the last few weeks in the wake of unilateral production cuts announced by Saudi Arabia and a pick up in consumption in all major economies globally.

 

The petrol and diesel prices have increased 13 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 3.59 and Rs 3.61 per litre respectively so far this year.

 

The last few increases in the pump prices in petrol and diesel have taken its rate to record levels across the country in all major metro cities and other towns. The last time the retail price of auto fuels were closer to the current levels was on October 4, 2018 when crude prices had shot up to $ 80 a barrel.

 

The current price rise is largely on account of a steep increase in the central taxes of petrol and diesel and firm crude prices. The Budget has also imposed a new agriculture infrastructure and development cess.

 

Petrol price was very close to breaching the all-time high level of Rs 84 a litre (reached on October 4, 2018) when it touched Rs 83.71 a litre on December 7, 2020. But the march had been halted ever since then with no price revision by the OMCs in the month. The price rise started again only on January 6.

 

Oil companies executives said that petrol and diesel prices may increase further in the coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with the global developments to prevent OMCs from making losses on the sale of auto fuels.