Diesel prices have changed again for the third time this week. Diesel rates across the major metros have dropped yet again by 18 to 25 paise on Friday. While diesel continues its downward move, petrol maintains its all-time high. Petrol has remained unchanged for a total of 34 days as of Friday. Petrol prices last saw a hike in mid-July, while diesel saw the rates go up a few days prior to petrol. Since then neither had changed. Diesel prices started dropping on Wednesday and have been consistently dropping by around 18 to 25 paise across the metros over the past three days.
Petrol prices across the major metro cities had previously been hiked by 26 to 34 paise and have maintained that since. On Friday, the petrol price in the nation’s capital remained at Rs 101.84 per litre. In Mumbai, the price of petrol was stagnant at Rs 107.83 per litre. Motorists in the city of Kolkata were shelling out Rs 102.08 per litre of petrol. Meanwhile, in Chennai, citizens were enjoying a relatively lower petrol price of Rs 99.47 per litre. Chennai is the only metro out of the five that has seen any change in petrol prices after the Tamil Nadu state government slashed the excise duty on fuel on August 13. Lastly, in Bangalore, the pump price for petrol continued to stand at Rs 102.08 per litre.
Diesel prices had begun dropping on August 18 and maintained that trend till Friday. On August 20, the diesel price in Delhi dropped by 20 paise, leaving the diesel rate in the city at Rs 89.27 per litre. In Mumbai, the diesel price stood at Rs 96.84 per litre after the rate slumped by 20 paise as well. Kolkata saw the steepest drop in comparison to all the five major metros as it went down by 25 paise. This left the price of diesel in the West Bengal city at Rs 92.32 per litre. In Bangalore, the motorists enjoyed a 21 paise drop in prices, leaving a final price of Rs 94.65 per litre. Chennai also saw another drop in the diesel price as it went down by 18 paise. This left the pump price of petrol at Rs 93.84 per litre in the South Indian city.
Petrol and diesel prices can be calculated on two fronts – national and international. On the national front, the majority of the fuel price is made up of Central government and state government taxes. Elements like Value-Added Tax (VAT), GST, and excise duty eat up most of the final retail price. On the international side of things, the major determiners of the fuel price are the crude oil prices per barrel in the market as well as the dollar-to-rupee exchange rate.
Crude oil prices slumped again on Thursday for the sixth session and hit an all-time low that has not been seen since May, said a Reuters report. This comes as investors pulled back over concerns of rising Covid-19 cases weakening the global demand against the rise of the US dollar. The oil market had rallied in the first half of 2021 but has lost about 15 per cent since July the report stated. The third wave has brought down global demand just as investors were gearing up to increase supply, Reuters mentions.
Brent crude lost 2.6 per cent or $1.78, leaving the price to settle at $66.45 per barrel. U.S. West Intermediate (WTI) also fell by 2.6 per cent or $1.71 to hit a low of $63.50 per barrel. Earlier both benchmarks had hit a record-low since May 21. Brent crude’s low was at $65.57 per barrel, while WTI stood at $62.41 per barrel. Both benchmarks have been on the decline for the past six days in a row, which is their longest downward trend since February 2020, mentioned the Reuters report.
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