Petrol, diesel prices hike again, for the fifth time in six days

Petrol price on Sunday was hiked by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise, taking the total increase in rates since resumption of daily price revision less than a week back to Rs 3.70-3.75 per litre.

Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 99.11 per litre as against Rs 98.61 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 89.87 per litre to Rs 90.42, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.

This comes after petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each on Saturday. All the four increases since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22, have been of 80 paise a litre. These increase increases are the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was started in June 2017.

In four increases, petrol and diesel prices have gone up by Rs 3.20 a litre.

Prices had been on a freeze since November 4 ahead of the assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab: a period during which the cost of raw material (crude oil) soared by about $30 per barrel.

The rate revision was expected soon after assembly elections ended on March 10 but it was put off.