New Delhi: Citing rise in crude oil rates in international markets and decline in the rupee’s value, the oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Monday announced a hike in petrol prices by 70 paise a litre, with effect from midnight.
Notably, the hike comes after two successive reductions in the price of the fuel last month, the last one being a Rs. 2.46 cut, which followed a Rs. 2.02 per litre cut on June 3.
The two price reductions had wiped out more than half of the massive Rs. 7.54 per litre increase in rates, the biggest in the history, effected last month.
Issuing a statement Indian Oil Crop, the nation’s largest fuel retailer said, “Monday's increase was "necessitated due to increasing international oil prices and movement in INR-USD exchange rate.
The average price of an Indian basket of crude is $101.28 a barrel, while the international petrol price is $111.59 a barrel. The rupee-dollar exchange rate is around Rs. 55.36 to a dollar.
The statement said that at these levels, the OMCs were incurring losses of approximately Rs. 1.41 a litre on sales in the domestic market. As the price movement is quite volatile, it was decided to have an increase of Rs. 0.70.
With this hike petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs. 68.48 while in Mumbai, the price has been raised by Rs. 0.88 to Rs. 74.24. In Chennai it will be Rs.73.16, while in Kolkata it will be Rs.73.61.
The revised prices in Hyderabad and Bangalore would be Rs.75.80 and Rs.77.30, respectively.