Petrol price crosses Rs 85 in Mumbai, no relief in sight

New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices continue their upwards journey amidst continuous calls for a cut in excise duty to ease the burden on consumers, but there seems no relief in the near future.

Petrol price touched a record high of Rs 85.29 per litre and diesel climbed to its highest ever level of Rs 72.96 in Mumbai as the oil PSUs passed on four weeks of relentless rise in international oil prices to consumers.

This is the eleventh straight day of price increase since oil PSUs on May 14 resumed daily price revision after a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus. In all, petrol price has been raised by Rs 2.81 a litre and diesel by 2.76 in Mumbai since May 14.

Petrol price in Delhi is at Rs 77.47, Kolkata at Rs 80.12 and Chennai at Rs 80.42  per litre while diesel prices in Delhi stood at Rs 68.53, Kolkata at Rs 71.08 and Chennai at Rs 72.35 per litre.

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.

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.

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.

With Agency Inputs