Petrol prices on upswing, poised to breach all-time high in Delhi

Auto fuel prices are on the upswing in the country, with pump price of petrol all set to breach an all-time high soon in Delhi.

The oil marketing companies (OMCs) continued to raise fuel prices, hiking the retail price of petrol by 28 paise per litre on Sunday to Rs 83.41 per litre in Delhi. Similarly, diesel prices also increased by 29 paise to Rs 73.61 per litre.

The current price of petrol in Delhi is nearly 60 paise short of breaching the all- time high of Rs 84 per litre recorded in October 2018.

Given the daily price increases, the milestone may be achieved early next week.

With Sunday's increase, fuel prices have now increased on 14 of the past 17 days, with petrol prices rising by a total of Rs 2.35 per litre and diesel by Rs 3.15 a litre. The increase has been primarily on account of firming up of global oil and product prices following news about coronavirus vaccine.

Petrol prices had been static since September 22, and diesel rates hadn't changed since October 2.

Though retail pricing of petrol and diesel has been deregulated and oil marketing companies were following a daily price revision formula, the same was suspended for almost two months to prevent volatility in international oil markets from impacting fuel prices regularly during the pandemic.

But with crude on the boil again in the wake of news about coronavirus vaccine launch soon, OMCs finally lost their patience and effected price increases to cover up for their under-recovery on the sale of two petroleum products.

The benchmark Brent crude has crossed $48 a barrel on Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) lately. It has remained t over $44 a barrel for most part of November.

--IANS

sn/tsb