Diesel prices have been hiked by Rs 1.90 a litre effective Monday midnight. The hike in diesel price does not include state levies, therefore the actual increase in price of diesel will be more than Rs 1.90 as sales tax or VAT is different for every city. Oil companies have confirmed the same, the hike in diesel price was being done on monthly basis, but with the elections starting of late the monthly price hike was halted until the voting process was completed.
Despite the price hike announced yesterday, the state-owned oil companies that last increased diesel price on March 1 will still lag behind by Rs 5.71 on a litre. After the recent revisions made to diesel price, the fuel will cost Rs 1.22 more in the capital of the country, Delhi at Rs 56.71/litre. On the other hand, the diesel price has been raised by Rs 1.35 to Rs 65.21 in India’s yet another metropolitan city, Mumbai located in Maharashtra. The Delhi and Mumbai diesel price hikes are inclusive of taxes.
In January 2013, the cabinet had announced to increase diesel price by 40-50 paiseper litre on monthly basis, to overcome the losses incurred by fuel companies. But due to elections, UPA decided on halting the price hike until the election process was wrapped up. From January 2013 till the last price hike (excluding yesterday’s), the country has witnessed a collective increase in diesel’s price by Rs 8.33 done in 14 divisions. To everyone’s relief, petrol prices will remain intact, though the oil companies are yet losing around 50 paise on a litre on petrol as a result of continual fall in value of rupee against the US dollar.
