Petrol, diesel prices at record highs; petrol crosses Rs 100-mark in Maharashtra

Petrol and diesel prices on Monday hit record highs across the country after rates were increased for the fifth time in a week following which Maharashtra joined Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in the league of states where petrol rates breached the Rs 100alitre markPetrol price was hiked by 26 paise a litre and diesel by 33 paise per litre according to a price notification by stateowned fuel retailersThis was the fifth increase in prices since May 4 when the stateowned oil firms ended an 18hiatus in rate revision during assembly elections in states like West BengalThe increase took petrol and diesel prices to their highestever level In Delhi petrol now comes for Rs 9153 per litre and diesel is priced at Rs 8206 per litreWhile petrol prices had crossed the Rs 100mark in some places in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh a few days back Maharashtras Parbhani joined the league on Monday Petrol in Parbhani was priced at Rs 10020 a litre while in Bhopal it came for Rs 9955 a litreThe fuel is sold at Rs 10242 a litre in Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan and at Rs 10212 in Anuppur of Madhya PradeshThis is the second time this year that rates in some parts have crossed the Rs 100a litre mark Rates had breached the physiological mark for the first time in midFebruaryFuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges Rajasthan levies the highest valueadded tax VAT on petrol in the country followed by Madhya PradeshIn five increases in the last one week petrol price has risen by Rs 114 per litre and diesel by Rs 133 more than neutralising all of the reduction that came between March 24 and April 15After raising petrol price by a record Rs 2158 per litre and diesel by Rs 1918 since the government raised excise duty to an alltime high in March last year stateowned fuel retailers IOC BPCL and HPCL had reduced petrol price by 67 paise a litre and diesel by 74 paise per litre effected between March 24 and April 15Oil companies who have in recent months resorted to unexplained freeze in rate revision had hit a pause button after cutting prices marginally on April 15 This coincided with electioneering hitting peak to elect new governments in five states including West BengalNo sooner had voting ended oil companies indicated an impending increase in retail prices in view of firming trends in international oil marketsThey said prices have been on a continuous uptrend since April 27 crude oil price is hovering near USD 70perbarrel markCentral and state taxes make up for 60 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and over 54 per cent of diesel The union government levies Rs 3290 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 3180 on dieselIn Mumbai the petrol price was hiked to Rs 9786 a litre on Monday from Rs 9761 while diesel rates were increased to Rs 8917 from Rs 8882 the price notification showedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever