Zoom News : Oct 15, 2021, 11:18 AM
New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices were hiked again across the country on Friday, the second straight hike after a pause of two days.Petrol prices increased by ₹0.35 paise to ₹105.14 per litre in the national capital while the price of diesel was raised by the same amount to ₹93.87 per litre.In Mumbai, popularly known as the financial capital of India, petrol prices were raised by ₹0.34 to ₹111.09 per litre, and diesel by ₹0.37 to ₹101.78 per litre.Petrol and diesel have been priced at ₹105.76 and ₹96.98 respectively in West Bengal's Kolkata and ₹102.40 and ₹98.26 in Chennai respectively.In Bengaluru, petrol is available at ₹108.80 per litre and diesel at ₹99.63 and in Hyderabad, one litre of petrol is now available at ₹109.37 and diesel cost ₹102.42 for one litre of diesel.This is the 14th time that petrol price has been hiked in two weeks while diesel rates have gone up on 17 times in three weeks.Oil companies started raising auto fuel prices last week. The pause on the prices on October 12 and 13 came after a seven-day consecutive rise. While petrol price in most of the country is already above ₹100-a-litre mark, diesel rates have crossed that level in a dozen states including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka and Leh.Prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes.Shedding the modest price change policy, state-owned fuel retailers have since October 6 started passing on the larger incidence of cost to consumers.This is because the international benchmark Brent crude has jumped to near USD 84 per barrel for the first time in seven years.On September 13, Brent was trading at USD 73.51.Being a net importer of oil, India prices petrol and diesel at rates equivalent to international prices.The surge in international oil prices ended a three-week hiatus in rates on September 28 for petrol and September 24 for diesel.Since then, diesel rates have gone up by ₹4.9 per litre and petrol price has increased by ₹3.9.Prior to that, the petrol price was increased by ₹11.44 a litre between May 4 and July 17. Diesel rate had gone up by ₹9.14 during this period.