Srinagar, Nov 4: With the latest hike of Rs 1.82, the rate of petrol has been fixed at Rs 73.34 per litre in the Valley by oil companies against the existing rate of Rs 71.52.
The oil companies last night hiked the petrol price by Rs 1.80 to 1.91 to wipe off their losses on the decontrolled fuel. This is the fourth such increase in current financial year and the 10th since price was decontrolled in June last year.
The new price of petrol is Rs 68.64 per litre in Delhi (Rs 1.80 increase), Rs 73.15 in Kolkata (Rs 1.87), Rs 73.81 in Mumbai (Rs 1.89) and Rs 72.73 in Chennai (Rs 1.91).
The hike, companies say, has been implemented to pass on the impact of a depreciating rupee that has resulted in a higher cost. The last time petrol price was hiked was on September 15, when companies raised prices by a steep Rs 3.14 per litre.
“We were losing around Rs 1.50 litre,” said an official at Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s biggest oil marketer. “The increase of up to Rs 1.91 has been done after factoring the local levies. The increase takes care of the entire loss on petrol.”
Even since the government decontrolled petrol price 17 months ago, petrol prices have moved up over 43 percent. During the same period, diesel prices, which is still regulated, has increased just twice by 8.37 percent to Rs 41.29 per litre. Currently, the companies are losing over Rs 8.58 on a litre of diesel, Rs 25.66 on per litre kerosene and Rs 260.50 on a domestic LPG cylinder.
Though petrol was deregulated in tune with the Kirit Parikh committee report, the government is yet to take a call on its suggestion for deregulation of diesel.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 4 Nov 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 4 Nov 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 5 Nov 2011 00:00:00 IST