New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices were on Friday increased by Rs 3 per litre each after state-owned oil firms ended a four-year record hiatus in rate revision, industry sources said.
Petrol price was hiked to Rs 97.77 per litre from Rs 94.77 in the national capital. Diesel now costs Rs 90.67 as against Rs 89.67 per litre previously, according to sources.
The increase is a tenth of the desired hike needed to account for the surge in global energy rates since the start of the West Asia conflict, they said.
State-owned oil firms had kept fuel prices unchanged for 11 weeks despite a surge in input cost, but passed on part of the increase once operations became financially unsustainable, the sources added.
Prices had remained on freeze since April 2022, barring a one-off reduction of Rs 2 per litre each on petrol and diesel in March 2024 just before the Lok Sabha elections.
State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) had abandoned the daily price revision in April 2022 to insulate domestic consumers from a steep price increase that was warranted because of international oil prices shooting through the roof post Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they said.
The three firms incurred heavy losses in the first half of the 2022-23 fiscal year, which they recouped when rates fell in subsequent months.
But the war in West Asia has again sent international oil prices soaring by over 50 per cent, sources said.
The basket of crude oil that India imports averaged USD 69 per barrel in February before the West Asia conflict broke out. It averaged USD 113-114 per barrel in subsequent months, they added.