Are Oil Marketing Companies shifting to alternate day fuel price revision module? This is what we know

New Delhi: Oil Marketing Companies have lately been seeing following a pattern in the revision of petrol and diesel prices in the country. In the last few days the OMCs have been mostly revising fuel prices in alternate days.

"It seems oil companies are giving a sense of relief to consumers as fuel prices are not being raised on a daily basis. But still prices are not actually falling but being raised on very alternate day too this month," an oil sector expert not willing to be named told news Agency IANS.

He said that the practice of daily price revision, started after deregulation of petrol and diesel prices few years had been done away by OMCs for past several months giving clear indication that administrative price regime is still working for the sector, IANS reported.

Petrol price on Monday was paused, while on Sunday price was increased by 24 paise per litre and diesel by 27 paise, pushing rates across the country to record highs and that of petrol in Mumbai to near Rs 99 a litre. The increase led to rates in Delhi climbing to Rs 92.58 per litre and diesel to Rs 83.22, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

Rates had already crossed Rs 100-mark in several cities in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and with the latest increase, price in Mumbai too was inching towards that level.

A litre of petrol in Mumbai now comes for Rs 98.88 and diesel is priced at Rs 90.40 per litre.

Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges. Rajasthan levies the highest value-added tax (VAT) on petrol in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

This is the ninth increase in prices since May 4 when the state-owned oil firms ended an 18-hiatus in rate revision they observed during assembly elections in states like West Bengal.

Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan had the costliest petrol and diesel in the country at Rs 103.52 per litre and Rs 95.99 a litre, respectively.

In nine increases, petrol price has risen by Rs 2.19 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.49.

Since March last year when the government raised excise duty on fuel to an all-time high, petrol price has increased by a record Rs 22.99 per litre (after accounting for a handful of occasions when rates fell) and diesel by Rs 20.93.

Central and state taxes make up for 60 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and over 54 per cent of diesel. The union government levies Rs 32.90 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 31.80 on diesel.

With Agency Inputs