New Delhi: For the first time in nearly three years, petrol price has been slashed on Tuesday, by Rs 2.22 a litre.
The reduction more than erases the steep Rs 1.80 a litre hike in rate announced earlier this month. It eases the pressure on the government ahead of the winter session of Parliament beginning next week.
Both the Opposition and the UPA allies had strongly criticised the UPA for allowing state-owned oil companies to increase petrol price at a time when headline inflation was nearing double digits. Petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 66.42 per litre from midnight tonight against the current rate of Rs 68.64 a litre, the three oil marketing companies said.
“We had gained Rs 1.85 per litre (excluding all taxes) since the last price revision because of a fall in global oil rates and a marginal appreciation in rupee value. We are passing this on to consumers,” Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Chairman R S Butola told PTI here.
After adding 20 per cent local sales tax or VAT, the decrease in Delhi comes to Rs 2.22 per litre.
Petrol price in Mumbai has been reduced by Rs 2.34 per litre to Rs 71.47 per litre, while in Kolkata the cut is Rs 2.31 to Rs 70.84 a litre. Price in Chennai will come down to Rs 70.38 per litre from Rs 72.72, a decrease of Rs 2.35 per litre.
This is the first reduction in petrol price since January 2009 when rates were cut by Rs 5 per litre. Before that the then Oil Minister Murli Deora had made oil firms slash petrol price by an equal proportion in December 2008.
The average price of gasoline (petrol) in the first fortnight of November was about USD 5 per barrel lower than the rate which formed the basis for the price revision on November 3, said a top executive at one of the state-owned fuel retail companies. (PTI)