Mumbaihas become the first metro city that is selling petrol at over Rs 100 per litreto consumers. Maintaining the price rise momentum, oil companies raised theprice of petrol and diesel again on Saturday by 25-30 paise per litre. Withthis, petrol prices rose 25 paise per litre in Mumbai taking up retail pricethere from Rs 99.94 per litre a day earlier to Rs 100.19 per litre on Saturday.
Dieselprices in the city is also the highest among metro cities at Rs 92.17 perlitre, increasing by 30 paise from previous level on Saturday.
Atover Rs 100 a litre, petrol price in Mumbai is at the historic high level.Never before the fuel price has come even closer to reaching this mark.
ButMumbai does not have unique distinction of breaching the Rs 100 pet litre mark.Thane already reached the mark few days back while few other cities inRajasthan (including Jaipur) Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, having the highestVAT levels on auto fuels in the country, have already been selling normalpetrol for over Rs 100 a litre for past several days.
Premiumpetrol prices have already crossed the Rs 100 per litre mark in the city andother parts of the country through increase in the retail rates in the month ofJanuary and February.
Withprice rise on Saturday, in Delhi also petrol is being sold at Rs 93.94 a litrewhile diesel at Rs 84.89 a litre, an increase of 26 paise and 29 paise perlitre respectively over previous days price. Across the country as well Petroland diesel prices increased on Saturday but the quantum varied depending on thelevel of local taxes in different states.
WithSaturday's price rise, fuel prices have now increased on 15 days and remainedunchanged on 14 days so far in the month of May. The 15 increases in May hastaken up petrol prices by Rs 3.54 per litre in Delhi. Similarly, diesel haveincreased by Rs 4.17 per litre in national capital.
Underdaily price revision, OMCs revise petrol and diesel prices every morningbenchmarking retail fuel prices to a 15-day rolling average of global refinedproducts' prices and dollar exchange rate. However, in a market where fuelprices need to be increased successively, oil companies this month have beenholding back price rise on few days before starting the process all over again.
Earlier,it was reported that OMCs may begin increasing the retail price of petrol anddiesel post state elections as they were incurring losses to the tune of Rs 2-3per litre by holding the price line despite higher global crude and productprices.
Withglobal crude prices rising again to around $70 a barrel mark, OMCs may have tokeep revising prices upwards for some more time.