Fuel price hike update Day 20: Diesel continues to be more expensive than petrol in Delhi
Breaking the conventional trend of diesel being more accessible that petrol, the oil companies increased the prices of diesel making it cross the Rs.80 mark. While diesel and petrol were retailing at Rs. 80.02 per litre and Rs.79.92 per litre respectively in Delhi on June 25, the same have gone up by 17 paise and 21 paise today making it Rs 80.19 per litre for diesel and Rs 80.13 per litre for petrol.
The difference in petrol and diesel prices on May 5 were Rs 7.3. In addition to the increase in VAT to 30 per cent on both fuels (up from 16.75 per cent on diesel and 27 per cent on petrol), there is an additional component of air ambience levy on diesel of Rs 250 per litre which contributes to Rs. 2 increase on it, also reducing the gap in the fuel prices. As per today, the cumulative increase on diesel is Rs 10.67 and petrol Rs 8.71, since June 7. Excise duty and taxes amount to 70% of fuel prices, whereas 30% is benchmarked with international prices.
Between March 16 and June 6, oil companies across the country had frozen the price hikes. As a measure to counter the losses due to the ongoing pandemic, the government had hiked the excise duty on both petrol and diesel prices, by Rs 10 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 litre on diesel. These two hikes resulted in Rs. 15,000 crore between March 15 to May 31. It is said that an increase of Rs.1 per litre amounts to Rs 14,000 crore a year to the government.
Initially, the oil companies such as Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had absorbed the hike, however, from June 7 onward the fuel prices were hiked on a daily basis.
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