Petrol and diesel prices were increased all over India for the 17th consecutive day today. Petrol has become costlier by 20 paise a litre while diesel rate touched new all-time high after a 55 paise hike. Overall, petrol price has gone up by ₹8.5 a litre while that of diesel has increased by a higher margin of ₹10.01 in the current spate of daily rate hikes.
In Delhi, the price of diesel has increased so much now that it is almost equivalent to that of petrol in Delhi. Buying a litre of petrol would cost you ₹79.76 while diesel costs ₹79.40, a narrow gap of just 36 paise. Due to a difference in international benchmark rates, petrol usually costs anywhere between ₹5-8 more than diesel, used widely by the industry and goods transporters.
The price gap between petrol and diesel, however, remains intact in other cities. In Mumbai, for example, petrol costs ₹8.78 per litre more than diesel.
In Delhi, the two fuels had a price gap of ₹7.3 a litre in the beginning of May but the equation changed after the state government hiked value added tax (VAT) on the two fuels disproportionately. VAT on petrol was increased to 30% from 27% while VAT on diesel was almost doubled to 30% from 16.75% by the Arvind Kejriwal government.
After the VAT hike, the price of diesel had gone up by ₹7.10 a litre in Delhi and that of petrol by ₹1.67 per litre.
Latest petrol, diesel prices in top cities:
New Delhi: Petrol ₹79.76. Diesel ₹79.40
Gurgaon: Petrol ₹77.99. Diesel ₹71.76
Mumbai: Petrol ₹86.54. Diesel ₹77.76
Chennai: Petrol ₹83.04. Diesel ₹76.77
Hyderabad: Petrol ₹82.79. Diesel ₹77.60
Bengaluru: Petrol ₹82.35. Diesel ₹75.51
News Source: Livemit