Petrol and diesel prices hiked yet again

Petrol and diesel prices saw yet another rise on Tuesday. While the price of petrol was increased by 16 paise per litre, diesel price was hiked by 14 paise per litre. The prices of fuel have been hiked for the 16th consecutive day.

With the latest hike, petrol price touched Rs 78.43 per litre in Delhi and Rs 86.24 per litre in Mumbai. Prices of diesel in Delhi now stands at Rs 69.31 per litre while that in Mumbai is Rs 73.79 per litre.

This comes a day after the Oil Ministry gave its in-principle approval for futures trading in petrol as well as diesel. A final clearance in this regard is expected from regulator Sebi soon. The development comes at a time when state-run oil marketers have hiked petrol and diesel prices continuously for the past two weeks.

"The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry has given an in-principle nod to launch petrol and diesel futures contracts and we are hoping that Sebi will give final approval in this regard soon," said ICEX managing director and chief executive officer Sanjit Prasad on Monday.

The Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX) had approached Sebi seeking its nod to launch petrol and diesel futures contracts. Following this, the capital markets watchdog had sought views from the ministry in this regard.

ICEX was asked by the ministry to give a detailed presentation on petrol and diesel futures contracts to oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, senior bureaucrats and oil marketing companies.

Petrol price has been hiked by Rs 3.80 a litre and diesel by Rs 3.38 in Delhi since state-owned oil firms ended a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus to resume daily price revision on May 14.