Fuel prices touch all-time highs; petrol crosses Rs 100 mark in Chandigarh

New Delhi, October 10

Diesel prices on Sunday crossed Rs 100-a-litre-mark in Gandhinagar and Leh as fuel prices were hiked again in sync with firming international oil prices.

Petrol price was hiked by 30 paise per litre and diesel by 35 paise a litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

The sixth straight day of price hike pushed fuel rates to a new record high.

The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of Rs 104.14 a litre and Rs 110.12 per litre in Mumbai, the notification showed.

In Mumbai, diesel now comes for Rs 100.66 a litre; while in Delhi, it costs Rs 92.82.

After Mumbai and Hyderabad, diesel rates cross the Rs 100 per litre mark in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat state, and UT of Leh. Diesel now costs Rs 100.21 a litre in Gandhinagar and Rs 100.06 in Leh.

Bhopal, Raipur and Jaipur are other state capitals where diesel is above that mark.

The relentless fuel price hike has also pushed petrol above the Rs 100 mark in all but one state capital, with Chandigarh, Dehradun and Guwahati joining that list. Ranchi is the only state capital with petrol less than that mark.

Prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes.

Shedding the modest price change policy, state-owned fuel retailers have since October 6 started passing on the larger incidence of cost to consumers.

For five days in a row, the price of petrol has been hiked by 30 paise a litre and diesel by 35 paise, the biggest rally in rates. Prior to that, petrol price was increased by 25 paise and diesel by 30 paise.

This is because the international benchmark Brent crude has soared to over USD 82 per barrel after the decision by OPEC+ not to increase output more than 0.4 million barrels per day, fuel rates are being increased by a larger proportion.

A month ago, Brent was around USD 72 per barrel.

Being a net importer of oil, India prices petrol and diesel at rates equivalent to international prices.

The surge in international oil prices ended a three-week hiatus in rates on September 28 for petrol and September 24 for diesel.

Since then, diesel rates have gone up by Rs 4.20 paise per litre and petrol price has increased by Rs 2.95.

Prior to the July/August price cuts, the petrol price was increased by Rs 11.44 a litre between May 4 and July 17. Diesel rate had gone up by Rs 9.14 during this period. PTI

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