Fuel prices ease after record high, LPG to be cheaper by Rs 10 from today

After a record increase, petrol, diesel and domestic cooking gas (LPG) prices are likely to fall for a while as international oil prices have softened. Petrol and diesel prices were cut thrice in a week; LPG may too see a reduction. 

Petrol and diesel prices on Tuesday were slashed for the third time within a week on the back of softening international oil prices. Petrol price was cut by 22 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise per litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

Petrol now costs Rs 90.56 per litre in Delhi and a litre of diesel comes for Rs 80.87. Rates have been reduced across the country and vary from state to state depending on the local incidence of taxation (VAT).

Petrol price was cut to Rs 96.98 a litre in Mumbai on Tuesday from Rs 97.19, while diesel rates were reduced to Rs 87.96 from Rs 88.20, the price notification showed. Fuel prices were reduced for the first time in six months on March 24, and thereafter on March 25 as well after international oil prices fell on prospect of speedy recovery in consumption getting clouded by the second wave of Covid-19 cases.

Petrol and diesel prices touched an all-time high last month while LPG prices too had been increased by Rs 125 per cylinder in recent weeks.

But since the end of February, petrol and diesel prices have remained static because of international prices being range-bound. They have been cut by 60-61 paise a litre in three reductions in one week after global prices softened. 

While petrol and diesel prices are revised daily based on a 15-day rolling average of benchmark fuel in the international market, LPG rates are decided on the 1st of every month. A 14.2-kg LPG cylinder -- both for subsidised and market price users -- will cost Rs 809 from April 1 as against Rs 819 currently, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said in a statement.

The price cut, which traditionally is announced on the day the change is effective -- four times the rates went up in a span of one month -- was announced a day ahead of the second phase of voting in West Bengal. The politically-crucial Nandigram constituency from where state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking on her once-trusted aide Suvendu Adhikari, who is contesting on BJP ticket, is also going for polls on Thursday.

"Prices of crude oil and petroleum products in the international market have been on a constant uptrend since November 2020. As India is largely import-dependent on crude oil and the prices are market-linked, the increase in international prices resulted in an increase in the domestic price of petroleum products," IOC said.