The price of petrol and diesel went up for the twelfth consecutive day on Thursday, raising the total cost by Rs 6.55 litre for petrol and Rs 7.04 litre for diesel.
In Delhi, the petrol price was increased by 53 paise and diesel by 64 paise per litre.
The government had first raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 3 per litre each on March 14 and then again on May 5 by a record Rs 10 per litre in case of petrol and Rs 13 on diesel. The two hikes gave the government Rs 2 lakh crore in additional tax revenues.
State-owned fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL had frozen petrol and diesel prices since March 16, as if anticipating the government move and set off gains they accrued from continuing drop in international oil prices against the excise duty hike.
After falling down to just 30% of the normal levels in April, fuel demand has now recovered to 82-85% of pre-Covid levels with the phased reopening of the economy.
In the international market, Brent crude oil futures were down 1%, at $40.56 a barrel on Wednesday. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast oil demand at 91.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, 500,000 bpd higher than its estimate in May's report, citing higher than expected consumption during coronavirus lockdowns.
(details to follow)
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