The price of petrol was today cut by 58 paise per litre and that of diesel by 25 paise, reversing the trend of increasing rates, on global cues.
Petrol will cost Rs 60.48 per litre from mid-night tonight in Delhi as against Rs 60.70 a litre currently.
A litre of diesel will cost Rs 46.55 from tomorrow compared with the Rs 46.80 now, said Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's biggest fuel retailer.
The price cut more than reverses the hike of 36 paise a litre in petrol rates effected on November 16, the first increase in five months. Similarly, in the case of diesel, it reverses the three rounds of hikes since October -- the last being 87 paise a litre on November 16.
"The current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and rupee-dollar exchange rate warrants a decrease in prices, the impact of which is being passed on to consumers with this price revision," IOC said in a statement here.
Prior to the November 16 hike, petrol price had been slashed on four occasions -- by Rs 2.43 on August 1, Rs 1.27 on August 16, Rs 2 on September 1 and 50 paise on November 1.
Diesel rates were not changed on November 1, but hiked by 95 paise on October 16 and 50 paise on October 1. Rates of diesel were last cut by 50 paise on September 1.
State-owned fuel retailers -- IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) -- revise petrol and diesel prices on 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported cost and rupee-dollar exchange rate in the previous fortnight.
"The movement of prices in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes," the IOC statement added.
Prior to these, the government had in four installments
raised the excise duty on petrol and diesel between November 2014 and January 2015 to lessen the reduction in retail rates, which followed falling international oil rates.
The four excise duty hikes during this period totalled Rs 7.75 per litre on petrol and Rs 6.50 a litre on diesel. It led to about Rs 20,000 crore in additional revenue to the government, helping it meet the fiscal deficit target.
If the government would not have raised these duties, consumer price of petrol and diesel should have been lower by 11.77 a litre and Rs 13.30 per litre, respectively.
Petrol currently costs Rs 59.99 per litre in Delhi while diesel costs Rs 44.71 a litre.
After including additional and special excise duty, the total levy on unbranded petrol will be Rs 21.48 per litre, as against Rs 20.73, currently.
Similarly, on unbranded or normal diesel, total excise duty after including special excise will be Rs 17.16 per litre compared with the Rs 15.66 now.
The basic excise duty on branded petrol has been raised from Rs 9.66 per litre to Rs 10.66 and the same on branded diesel from Rs 12.19 to Rs 13.69 per litre, the CBEC notification said.
The government had collected Rs 99,184 crore in excise collections from the petroleum sector in 2014-15, which stood at Rs 33,042 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
