Petrol, Diesel Become Cheaper After Centre Slashes Excise Duty; Check Fuel Prices Today

Petrol, Diesel Prices on Thursday: The prices of petrol and diesel were kept unchanged by the OMCs for the eighteenth day straight on Thursday. Prices have remained steady since Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a cut in excise duty on petrol by 8 per litre, and 6 rupees per litre on diesel earlier on May 21. Petrol price in Delhi today stands at Rs 96.72 a litre as against Rs 105.41 a litre last month, while diesel will cost Rs 89.62 a litre as opposed to Rs 96.67. In Mumbai, one litre of petrol costs Rs 111.35 while diesel is retailing at Rs 97.28 per litre.

The retail price for a litre of petrol in Kolkata is Rs 106.03 per litre, while the retail price for one litre of diesel in the capital city of West Bengal stands at Rs 92.76 per litre. In Chennai, the petrol price is Rs 102.63 per litre, while diesel retail price stands at Rs 94.24 per litre in the capital city of Tamil Nadu.

Revision of petrol and diesel prices is a regular process which is done by public sector OMCs like Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL). Fuel price revisions made by the OMCs are influenced by several factors including international crude oil prices and foreign exchange rates. Within the country, prices of petrol and diesel vary from state to state since they are influenced by local factors like local taxes, VAT (Value Added Tax), freight charges, among others.

After the Centre relaxed the Excise Duty on fuel prices, the Kerala government also announced a reduction in tax on the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 2.41 and Rs 1.36 per litre respectively. The Odisha government offered relaxation on taxes on petrol and diesel by Rs 2.23 and Rs 1.36 a litre respectively. The Rajasthan government reduced VAT on petrol by Rs 2.48 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.16 per litre. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government reduced VAT petrol by Rs 2.08 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.44 per litre.