Petrol, diesel prices fall for second consecutive day

Consumers can heave a sign of relief as oil marketing companies OMCs have finally relented and started reducing the retail price of petrol and diesel after keeping them steady for 24 days in MarchThis is the second reduction in petrol and diesel prices in as many days in 2021Petrol price fell by 21 paise per litre and diesel by 20 paise per litre in Delhi on Thursday This has brought down the retail price of petrol to Rs 9078 and diesel to Rs 8110 a litre respectively in the national capitalAcross the country as well the petrol and diesel prices fell with the quantum varying depending on the level of local levies in respective statesIn Mumbai and Kolkata the retail price of petrol fell by 21 and 20 paise per litre respectively and in Chennai by 18 paise per litre on Thursday For diesel the prices fell by 19 paise 20 paise and 22 paise per litre respectively in Chennai Kolkata and MumbaiIn Mumbai petrol is now priced at Rs 9719 a litre from previous days price of Rs 9740 and diesel in the city is now priced at Rs 8820 a litre from previous price of Rs 8842 a litre Premium petrol however continues to remain over Rs 100 a litre in the city as is the case with several cities across the countryThe latest price cuts on auto fuel have come after OMCs kept oil prices steady for the last 24 days Petrol and diesel prices were last revised upwards on February 27 and ever since then retail prices remained unchanged even though during the period crude jumped to over 70 a barrel only to start falling and is now slightly up at 635 a barrelSources said that oil companies took time to revise petrol and diesel prices downwards as they were covering up for losses incurred on its sale when crude was high and retail prices remained static Some indications suggest that there was a loss of Rs 4 and Rs 2 per litre on the sale of diesel and petrol respectively earlier that had now been more or less coveredThe current reduction in retail prices has not helped in bringing down fuel prices that have crossed Rs 100 per litre petrol mark in several parts of the country and continues to remain above the levels even nowSince the beginning of February crude has gained more than 7 per barrel that pushed OMCs to increase fuel prices on 14 occasions raising the prices by Rs 422 per litre for petrol and by Rs 434 a litre for diesel in DelhiCrude has now slipped around 9 per cent in the last eight days and is now sitting at a tab lower around 635 a barrel on the back of rising US inventory and concerns on demand squeeze over the new wave of the pandemicThe petrol and diesel prices have increased 26 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 746 and Rs 760 per litre respectively so far this yearOfficials in public sector oil companies said that retail prices may rise again if crude and product prices pick up but for now it will fall over the needy few daysThis 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