Diesel becomes costlier than petrol in Delhi for the first time

Diesel has become the most expensive auto-fuel in the country overtaking petrol for the first time in a long while as the oil marketing companies on Wednesday, 24 June, raised its pump prices by 48 paisa while keeping the price of the other fuels unchanged.

Diesel is expected to surpass petrol prices this week, news agency IANS had reported on Tuesday.

In other metros, however, diesel maintains the tag of cheaper of the auto fuels with price differential between diesel and petrol prices remaining at about Rs 8 litre in Mumbai, Rs 6 a litre in Chennai and Kolkata.

Due to differential taxation structure at both Centre and the states, diesel prices in the country have always remained much cheaper than that of petrol. Globally though, diesel is the expensive of the auto fuels as the product has higher cost of production.

With central taxes on the two products already reaching identical levels, the Delhi government’s move hastened price parity between petrol and diesel. Currently, the central excise on petrol is Rs 32.98 a litre while that on diesel it is Rs 31.83 a litre. VAT on petrol in Delhi is Rs 17.71 a litre that on diesel is Rs 17.60.

Interestingly, even in India the base price of diesel is expensive than petrol. According to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), while base price of petrol in Delhi currently comes to Rs 22.11 per litre, the same for diesel is higher at Rs 22.93 per litre (effective from June 16, 2020). This has been the case for a long time but retail prices of petrol came higher than diesel due to central and state taxes.