Petrol and diesel prices fall after 24-day hiatus: Here’s what you pay in your city

Petrol and diesel price today: After remaining unchanged at their record highs for 24 straight days, petrol and diesel prices receded across the country on Wednesday, March 24, 2021. In the national capital, petrol price fell by 18 paise while that of diesel slipped by 17 paise.

The latest move by the oil marketing companies marks the first revision in auto fuel prices this month and the first revision in nearly one month with the previous revision taking place on February 27, 2021.

With today’s price revision, petrol in Delhi is now retailing at Rs 90.99 a litre while diesel is selling at Rs 81.30. In the financial capital Mumbai, petrol price now stands at Rs 97.40 while diesel costs Rs 88.42, data available on Indian Oil Corporation’s website showed.

Last month, the price of petrol had breached the Rs 100-mark in two places in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which levy the highest VAT on the fuel in the country. In these two cities, the key auto fuel eased to Rs 101.65 in Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar, while diesel here was available at Rs 93.60 per litre. In Madhya Pradesh’s Anuppur, petrol now costs Rs 101.40 per litre and diesel is selling for Rs 91.78.

This is the first reduction in fuel prices in over a year. Prices were last reduced on March 16, 2020, according to a report by news agency PTI.

Despite bouts of rate freeze, prices had gone up by a record Rs 21.58 per litre on petrol in the last one year. On diesel prices had increased by Rs 19.18 a litre, it said.

Petrol and diesel prices differ from state to state as taxes get levied on them by both central as well as state governments along with the freight charges.

The central and state taxes make up for 60 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and over 54 per cent of diesel. Centre levies Rs 32.90 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 31.80 a litre on diesel.

The government’s tax collections on petrol and diesel have jumped over 300 per cent in the last six years as excise duty on the two fuels was hiked, Lok Sabha was informed on Monday. The collections on petrol and diesel rose to Rs 2.94 lakh crore in the first 10 months of the current fiscal (2020-21), Minister of State (MoS) Finance Anurag Thakur said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The fuel prices are generally revised on a daily basis in line with benchmark international price and foreign exchange rates.

In the international market, crude oil prices edged higher on Wednesday as investors looked for bargains following the previous day’s plunge, but gains were capped as pandemic lockdowns in Europe and a build in US crude stocks curbed risk appetite and raised oversupply fears, news agency Reuters reported earlier in the day.

Brent crude futures rose 27 cents (0.4 per cent) to $61.06 a barrel by 0108 GMT, after tumbling 5.9 per cent and hitting a low of $60.50 the previous day. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 19 cents (0.3 per cent) to $57.95 a barrel, having lost 6.2 per cent and touched a low of $57.32 on Tuesday. Both benchmarks touched their lowest levels since early February on Tuesday and have now fallen more than 14 per cent from their recent highs earlier this month, the report said.

Here’s what you pay for a litre of petrol and diesel in your city on Wednesday, March 24, 2021: