Petrol price has been hiked by Rs 6 per litre since the beginning of July and is now priced at its highest rate in three years, with rates being revised in small dosages daily.
Diesel price has increased by Rs 3.67 a litre and now costs Rs 57.03 a litre in Delhi, the highest in four months, according to data from state-owned oil companies.
A litre of petrol costs Rs 69.09 in Delhi, the highest since second-half of August 2014 when it was priced at Rs 70.33.
State-owned oil companies in June dumped the 15-year old practice of revising rates on first and 16th of every month and instead adopted a dynamic daily price revision to instantaneously reflect changes in the cost.
Prices of petrol and diesel have been revised at 6 am everyday since 16 June. Rates during the first fortnight dropped but have been on the rise since 3 July.
Petrol price was at Rs 65.48 a litre on 16 June in Delhi and it dropped to Rs 63.06 by 2 July. However, rates have since gone up every day except on four occasions when prices were cut by 2-9 paise per litre.
Similarly, a litre of diesel was priced at Rs 54.49 on 16 June and it dropped to Rs 53.36 on 2 July, thanks to the softening international oil prices. Since then, it has been on an upswing though the reduction in diesel rates have been on a larger number of occasions than petrol.
Previously, everybody felt the pinch when rates would go up by Rs 2 or 3 per litre in one go. Now that they are being increased by 1 paisa to 15 paise a litre everyday, hikes have largely gone unnoticed.Senior oil company executive
“ Many a time, international rates would fall for one week and then rise in the following. So, the net effect of this in the previous price revision policy was status quo or a marginal change in rate,” the executive added.
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