How petrol and diesel prices have fluctuated in the last five years – See chart

Here's looking at how both petrol and diesel prices have fluctuated since 2013 in four metro cities.

New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices remained at over 55-month high on Thursday, amidst continuous calls for a cut in excise duty to ease the burden on consumers.

Petrol in the national capital now costs Rs 74.63 a litre, the highest since September 14, 2013, when  rates had hit Rs 76.06. Diesel price remains at Rs 65.93, the highest ever.

The central government levies Rs 19.48 a litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel. State sales tax or VAT vary from state to state. In Delhi, VAT on petrol is Rs 15.84 and Rs 9.68 a litre on diesel.

While the government is hoping that geopolitical tension would ease and US shale oil would help ease oil prices, it is not in favour of tinkering with the autonomy given to oil PSUs to revise rates daily in line with the cost.

State-owned oil companies in June 2017, dumped the 15-year old practice of revising rates on 1st and 16th of every month and instead adopted a dynamic daily price revision to instantly reflect changes in cost.

Here's looking at how both petrol and diesel prices have fluctuated in the last five years

Petrol Prices in 4 metro cities in the since 2013 (Chart price as per 1st of every month)

Month	Delhi	Kolkata	Mumbai	Chennai
May 01, 2017	68.09	70.68	77.46	71.17
April 01, 2017	66.29	68.97	72.66	69.28
January 02, 2017	70.60	73.13	76.91	70.07
December 01, 2016	66.10	68.81	72.46	65.58
November 06, 2016	67.62	70.24	74.00	67.13
October 01, 2016	64.58	67.61	71.00	64.13
September 01, 2016	63.47	66.84	68.40	63.02
August 01, 2016	61.09	64.97	65.70	60.65
July 01, 2016	64.76	67.79	69.32	64.24
June 01, 2016	65.60	68.46	70.18	65.04
May 01, 2016	62.19	65.73	66.71	61.64
April 05, 2016	61.87	65.48	67.96	61.32
March 01, 2016	56.61	62.32	62.75	56.08
February 01, 2016	59.95	64.84	66.05	59.42
January 01, 2016	59.35	65.12	66.40	59.77
December 01, 2015	60.48	65.93	67.55	60.80
November 01, 2015	60.70	66.11	67.77	61.02
September 01, 2015	61.20	66.50	68.25	61.46
August 01, 2015	64.47	69.15	69.51	64.77
July 01, 2015	66.62	74.09	74.52	69.84
June 16, 2015	66.93	74.42	74.78	70.12
May 01, 2015	63.16	70.44	70.84	66.08
April 02, 2015	60.00	67.48	67.53	62.75
March 01, 2015	60.49	67.92	68.14	63.31
February 04, 2015	56.49	64.60	63.90	58.88
January 17, 2015	58.91	66.64	66.36	61.38
December 01, 2014	63.33	70.73	70.95	66.05
November 01, 2014	64.24	71.68	71.91	67.01
October 01, 2014	67.86	75.46	75.73	70.87
August 01, 2014	72.51	80.30	80.60	75.78
July 01, 2014	73.60	81.43	81.75	76.93
June 01, 2014	71.51	79.36	80.11	74.71
May 13, 2014	71.41	79.26	80.00	74.60
April 01, 2014	72.26	80.13	80.89	75.49
March 01, 2014	73.16	80.96	82.07	76.48
February 01, 2014	72.43	80.20	81.31	75.71
January 04, 2014	72.43	79.55	79.52	75.68
December 01, 2013	71.02	78.07	78.04	74.22
November 01, 2013	71.02	78.07	78.04	74.22
October 01, 2013	72.40	79.51	79.49	75.68
September 01, 2013	74.10	81.57	81.57	77.48
August 01, 2013	71.28	78.64	78.61	74.49
July 01, 2013	68.58	75.84	75.79	71.65
June 01, 2013	63.99	71.29	72.08	66.85
May 01, 2013	63.09	70.35	69.73	65.90
April 01, 2013	68.31	75.79	75.21	71.42
March 02, 2013	70.74	78.34	77.66	73.95
February 16, 2013	69.06	76.59	75.89	72.17
January 01, 2013	67.24	75.03	74.32	70.58

Diesel Prices in 4 metro cities in the since 2013

Month	Delhi	Kolkata	Mumbai	Chennai
May 01, 2017	57.35	59.61	63.12	60.71
April 01, 2017	55.61	57.86	61.27	58.82
January 02, 2017	57.82	60.06	63.61	59.47
December 01, 2016	54.57	56.81	60.17	56.10
November 06, 2016	56.41	58.67	62.15	58.02
October 01, 2016	52.51	54.83	58.03	53.98
September 01, 2016	52.94	55.15	58.48	54.43
August 01, 2016	52.27	54.57	57.47	53.73
July 01, 2016	54.70	56.89	60.00	56.25
June 01, 2016	53.93	56.13	59.21	55.44
May 01, 2016	50.95	52.97	56.61	51.78
April 05, 2016	49.31	51.58	56.09	50.09
March 01, 2016	46.43	49.57	53.06	47.13
February 01, 2016	44.68	48.04	51.22	45.33
January 01, 2016	45.03	48.80	52.16	46.25
December 01, 2015	46.55	50.10	53.78	47.77
November 01, 2015	45.93	49.55	53.11	47.10
September 01, 2015	44.45	48.23	49.51	45.56
August 01, 2015	46.12	49.66	51.29	47.30
July 01, 2015	50.22	54.75	57.64	53.52
June 16, 2015	50.93	55.45	58.37	54.29
May 01, 2015	49.57	54.17	56.87	52.76
April 02, 2015	48.50	53.23	55.69	51.61
March 01, 2015	49.71	54.29	57.08	52.92
February 04, 2015	46.01	50.99	52.99	48.91
January 17, 2015	48.26	52.99	55.47	51.34
December 01, 2014	52.51	57.08	60.11	55.93
November 01, 2014	53.35	57.95	61.04	56.84
October 01, 2014	55.60	60.30	63.54	59.27
August 01, 2014	58.40	63.22	66.63	62.30
July 01, 2014	57.84	62.64	66.01	61.70
June 01, 2014	57.28	61.97	65.84	61.12
May 13, 2014	56.71	61.38	65.21	60.50
April 01, 2014	55.49	60.11	63.86	59.18
March 01, 2014	55.48	60.09	63.86	59.17
February 01, 2014	54.91	59.50	63.23	58.56
January 04, 2014	54.34	58.76	61.42	57.93
December 01, 2013	53.67	58.08	60.70	57.23
November 01, 2013	53.10	57.49	60.08	56.61
October 01, 2013	52.54	56.90	59.46	56.01
September 01, 2013	51.97	56.33	58.86	55.37
August 01, 2013	51.40	55.74	58.23	54.76
July 01, 2013	50.26	54.57	56.99	53.54
June 01, 2013	50.25	54.56	57.79	53.53
May 01, 2013	48.67	52.91	54.92	51.82
April 01, 2013	48.63	52.86	54.87	51.78
March 02, 2013	48.16	52.04	54.26	51.23
February 16, 2013	48.16	52.04	54.26	51.23
January 01, 2013	47.15	50.98	53.14	50.13

(Chart source: IOCL, some months may be missing)