Petrol price hiked, again
Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies

New Delhi, July 14 2013: Oil companies today hiked the price of petrol by a steep Rs.1.55 a litre, without taxes, as the falling rupee made imports costlier.

The price of diesel was kept unchanged.

The new price will take effect from Sunday midnight.

Actual increase will be higher and will vary from city to city depending on local taxes.

Petrol price in Delhi has been hiked by Rs.1.86 per litre to Rs.70.44, effective Monday, as against Rs.68.58 currently.

This is the fourth increase in rates in since June thanks to depreciation of the rupee against dollar.

Oil firms had on June 1 raised the price of the fuel by 75 paise, excluding VAT, and followed it with a Rs.2 per litre increase on June 16 and a Rs.1.82 on June 29 .

The rupee, which plays a major role in petrol pricing, finished at 59.56/57 to dollar last week.

(Read: Rupee ends at 59.56, breaking 9-day losing streak) .

Indian Oil, in a statement released on its website on Sunday, said the hike is due to "the combined impact of deteriorating exchange rate and increasing international oil prices" .

"Since last price change, the downward spiral of rupee against the dollar has continued to reach a low of Rs.60.03 per dollar as against Rs.58.94 per dollar during the previous fortnight.

Further, international MS prices have also shown an uptrend and increased from $115.29/bbl to $117.19/bbl," it said.

The revision in prices, as per the practice of changing rates in line with cost every fortnight, was due on Tuesday, July 16, but has occurred a day earlier.

However, there will be no change in diesel prices just yet as the revision in its rates is due at the end of July.

With the latest increase, all of the gains made from four reductions in prices earlier this year had been neutralised.

The rates cuts had brought down the price to Rs.63.01 at the beginning of May.

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