New Delhi, July 1 Fuel prices seem to have gone for a longer pause after rising for 22 of the past 25 days as oil marketing companies (OMC) kept the pump prices of petrol and diesel unchanged again on Wednesday.
In the national capital, petrol price on Wednesday stood at Rs 80.43 per litre and diesel at Rs 80.53 a litre, same level as Tuesday when OMCs wend for pause and kept the prices unchanged over previous day.
Sources in public sector oil companies said that consumers could get relief from the regular price rise of the two petroleum products in coming days as the pause on Tuesday and Wednesday could be replicated in several of the coming days due to softening of global oil prices.
Also, the oil companies have covered most of the shortfall arising when for 82 continuous days (from March 14 to June 6) petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged while government substantially raised taxes on the products.
Starting from June 7, petrol price has increased by Rs 9.17 and diesel by Rs 11.14 in the national capital. In the other cities the magnitude of increase was similar. For the last six to seven days, the quantum of daily increase has fallen from 60 paise per litre to less than 20 paise per litre. With global oil prices remaining around $40 a barrel, any fall in oil prices now may result in fuel consumers actually getting the benefit of a cut on petrol and diesel prices.
In another development, the OMCs marginally increased the price of 14.2 kg non-subsidised LPG cylinder by Rs 1 in Delhi, effective Wednesday. The price of non-subsidised LPG in Delhi will now be Rs 594 per cylinder as against Rs 593 on June 1. Prices were up by Rs 4 in other metros mostly because of different local sales tax or VAT rate.
The oil companies also revised upwards the price of aviation turbine fuel by about 7.5 per cent to Rs 41,992.81 per kl in the national capital, according to a price notification by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The ATF prices increased twice in June by a record 56.6 per cent or Rs 12,126.75 per kl on June 1, and by Rs 5,494.5 per kl or 16.3 per cent increase on June 16. The increase in July is by Rs 2,922.94 per kl.
( With inputs from IANS )