New Delhi
Petrol and diesel prices continue their upwards journey amidst continuous calls for a cut in excise duty to ease the burden on consumers. In July 2014, the price of petrol was Rs 73.60 per litre while diesel was at Rs 57.84 per litre. At that time the Indian Basket Crude Oil was USD 106.30 per barrel.
On Monday (May 21, 2018), the petrol price touched a record high of Rs 76.57 per litre and diesel climbed to its highest ever level of Rs 67.82 as the oil PSUs passed on four weeks of relentless rise in international oil prices to consumers. The Indian Basket Crude Oil is at USD 79.13 per barrel.
This is the eight straight day of price increase since oil PSUs on May 14 resumed daily price revision after a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus. In all, petrol price has been raised by Rs 1.94 a litre and diesel by 1.89 in last one week.
The central government levies Rs 19.48 a litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel. State sales tax or VAT vary from state to state. In Delhi, VAT on petrol is Rs 15.84 and Rs 9.68 a litre on diesel.
Brent crude futures were at USD 79.13 per barrel at (0121 GMT) on Monday (May 21), up 62 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last close. Brent broke through USD 80 for the first time since November 2014 last week.
Fuel prices in India are affected by any change in the international market. The chart below mentions the price of Indian basket crude oil along with Retail Selling Price (RSP) of Petrol and Diesel, in Delhi in July 2014.
| Year/Month | Indian Basket Crude Oil (USD /bbl.) | Petrol (Rs/Litre) | Diesel (Rs/Litre) |
| July, 2014 | 106.30 | 73.60 | 57.84 |
Chart courtesy: Pib
While the government is hoping that geopolitical tension would ease and US shale oil would help ease oil prices, it is not in favour of tinkering with the autonomy given to oil PSUs to revise rates daily in line with the cost.
State-owned oil companies in June 2017, dumped the 15-year old practice of revising rates on 1st and 16th of every month and instead adopted a dynamic daily price revision to instantly reflect changes in cost.
