Petrol price goes up by Rs 7.50 per litre

Petrol price goes up by Rs 7.50 per litre

Mangalore Today / NDTV

New Delhi, May 23: Petrol will cost Rs. 7.50 more per litre starting at midnight. This is the steepest petrol price hike in nearly a decade.

The hike comes as the rupee hit an all-time low of Rs. 56 against the dollar.

In Delhi, prices will climb from Rs. 65.64 to Rs. 73.14 per litre. In Mumbai, the hike means petrol will climb from Rs. 70.8 to Rs. 78.34 per litre.

 

"This whole petrol price hike is clearly unreasonable, arbitrary and is condemned as it will put further inflationary pressure and lead to further rise in prices. Life of the common man will become more difficult and miserable," BJP’s chief Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"This is a striking blow the UPA has given on completion of its third year in office...this is due entirely to mismanagement," said the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman.

State-run oil companies have been losing Rs. 8000 crores per annum because they were being forced to sell petrol at subsidised rates.

India deregulated petrol prices in June 2010 but continues to subsidise kerosene, petrol and cooking gas to protect the poor from the impact of any inflation pressures.
 
In the second half of 2011, oil companies began reflecting market realities more closely and raised petrol prices but were stopped from end-November on the request of the government - their majority shareholder - ahead of elections in some states. Petrol prices were last revised on December 1.

 

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