Petrol hiked by 60 paise/litre, diesel by 50 paise

Get ready to pay more for petrol and diesel as stateowned oil companies on Friday hiked petrol by 60 paise a litre and diesel by 50 paise per litre.

The fuel price hikes will be effective from Saturday and are excluding local sales tax or VAT. The actual increase will be higher and will vary from city to city depending on the prevailing local taxes.

Petrol price, which was last hiked by 91 paise on January 4, will cost Rs. 73.16 a litre in Delhi from midnight, up 73 paise from Rs. 72.43 at present. In Mumbai, the fuel will cost Rs. 82.07 a litre as against Rs. 81.31 at present.

The price of diesel in Delhi will be hiked by 57 paise, including tax, to Rs. 55.48 per litre, while it will cost Rs. 63.86 a litre in Mumbai as against Rs. 63.23 at present.

Announcing the price hike, Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, said petrol price has been hiked because international oil rates have risen and rupee depreciated against US dollar, making imports costlier.

Alongside, the government on Friday decided to do away with the monthly cap of one subsidised LPG cylinder a month and allowed consumers to book a refill of the cheaper LPG cylinder within the same month.

However, there will be no change in the annual quota of 12 subsidised LPG cylinders in a year.

While the monthly cap on subsidised LPG cylinders is no longer valid, officials clarified that there be will no change in the annual quota of 12 subsidised LPG cylinders in a year and consumers who exhaust this quota will have to buy LPG at the market price.

A subsidised LPG cylinder costs Rs. 414 in Delhi. The market price for a non-subsidised LPG cylinder is Rs. 1,258 in the national capital.