Petrol price crosses ₹100 mark in 4 states; new record in Capital
The petrol prices earlier crossed the ₹100 mark in towns of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
Petrol prices breached the ₹100 per litre mark in cities of Punjab, Bihar, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as fuel rate on Saturday surged by 35 paise a litre across the country, the 30th hike in 54 days.
With the latest hike of 35 paise, petrol is now costlier by ₹7.71 per litre and diesel by ₹7.92 since May 4, a day after results of assembly polls in four states and a Union territory were declared.
The petrol prices earlier crossed the ₹100 mark in towns of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
On Saturday, petrol was selling at ₹100.14 per litre in Patna. The fuel price also touched ₹100 per litre in Salem (Tamil Nadu) and was being sold at ₹100.09 in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). In Punjab, petrol was selling at ₹100 in Moga, ₹100.20 in Mohali, ₹100.03 Firozpur and ₹100.19 in Rupnagar.
Some of the other cities where petrol was already selling for over ₹100 per litre are Mumbai, Ratnagiri, Parbhani, Aurangabad, Jaisalmer, Ganganagar, Banswara, Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Guntur, Kakinada, Chikmagalur, Shivamogga, Hyderabad, Leh, Imphal, Kalahandi, Sopore and Baramulla.
Both petrol and diesel rates have crossed the ₹100 mark in Rajasthan’s Ganganagar. Petrol was being sold there at ₹109.30 per litre and diesel at ₹101.85 a litre on Saturday.
Fuels in Delhi were selling at record levels – petrol at ₹98.11 per litre and diesel at ₹88.65. While fuel rates in Delhi are the benchmark for the entire country, retail prices of the two fuels differ from place to place because of variations in state taxes and local levies.
The financial capital has the highest fuel rates among five metros. Petrol is currently being sold at ₹104.22 per litre and diesel at ₹96.16 a litre there.
Surging international oil rates and exorbitant domestic tax structure are two key reasons for high rates of petrol and diesel.
International oil prices soared on Friday, the highest since October 2018 on expectations of demand growth, continued oil squeeze by producers’ cartel and geopolitical reasons.
The Benchmark Brent crude on Friday surged 0.82% to $76.18 a barrel.
Domestic fuel retailers align pump prices of petrol and diesel with respective international benchmarks of the previous day, which often move in tandem with crude oil rates. Pump prices of fuels are also high because of taxes. In Delhi, central levies account for 34.03% of petrol price and state taxes 23.08%, according to official data of June 16. On diesel, central taxes are over 36.38% while state taxes are about 14.63%.
