(Image source from: goodreturns.in)

The petrol and diesel prices are hiked by 80 paise per litre today and this is the fourth time they are increased since the last five days. The petrol in New Delhi is now costing Rs 98.61 per litre and it was Rs 97.81 yesterday. The diesel prices came up from Rs 89.07 to Rs 89.87 today. There was no hike in the prices of petrol and diesel from the past three months but they are increased four times in the last five days. With this, the price of petrol and diesel have been increased by Rs 3.20 per litre. The prices of petrol and diesel are freezer from November 4th which brought a relief for the people of the country. This took place because of the Assembly elections in five Indian states.

The Centre was keen to revise the prices of petrol and diesel since March 10th. The price of cooking gas too was increased recently. Oil companies did not revise the prices of petrol and diesel from the past 137 days and the price per barrel was 117 USD. Moody's Investors Services recently told that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) together lost close to Rs 19,000 crores (2.25 billion USD) for putting the prices of petrol and diesel on hold from the past 3-4 months. CRISIL Research told that there should be an increase of Rs 9-12 per litre for the pass-through of an average 100 USD per barrel crude oil.

By Siva Kumar