Good News! Petrol, diesel prices fall to the lowest in 2018

The oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Saturday slashed petrol and diesel prices by 30 Paise across four metropolitan cities. Petrol is now available at the cheapest rate in 2018.  Petrol was retailing at Rs 69.26 per litre and diesel at Rs 63.32 per litre, respectively in the national capital. In Mumbai, petrol and diesel were being sold at Rs 74.89 per litre and 66.25 per litre, respectively. In Chennai, petrol was retailing at Rs 71.85 per litre and diesel Rs 66.84 per litre. In Kolkata, petrol was sold at Rs 71.37 per litre and diesel at Rs 65.07 per litre. Petrol was retailing at Rs 70.40 a litre in Gurugram, while diesel at Rs 63.45 a litre.

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This is the lowest price of petrol in the country, as it was selling at a record high of Rs 84 per litre in Delhi and Rs 91.34 in Mumbai on October 4 this year, when crude prices were hovering around US Dollar 85 a barrel.

The lowest that petrol had touched this calendar year was on January 1, when its price was 69.97 a litre in Delhi. The lowest for diesel was Rs 59.70 on the same date. Petrol’s decline has been faster than that of diesel because of a difference in benchmark rates.

Fuel prices are retailing at the lowest level since the all-time high in October. Prices were slashed by almost Rs 14 wiping off the massive hikes in two months beginning August 16. Petrol in Delhi was priced at Rs 77.14 per litre and in Mumbai, it cost Rs 84.58 on August 15. Diesel on that day was priced at Rs 68.72 per litre in Delhi and at Rs 72.96 in Mumbai. Between August 16 and October 4, petrol price was hiked by Rs 6.86 per litre and diesel by Rs 6.73. 

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Retail fuel prices in India depend on both international oil price and the rupee-dollar exchange rate. Also, the pump price of petrol and diesel is dependent on the global rates of benchmark fuel and the rupee-US dollar exchange rate. Brent crude futures were around $61 per barrel mark on Friday after rising nearly 2 per cent on Thursday.