Oil companies to hike petrol price by 70 paise from midnight

New Delhi, Jul 23: Oil companies today decided to hike petrol prices by at least 70 paise per litre from midnight. The hike may be upto 91 paise in some cities.

According to Indian Oil, the "revision has been necessitated due to increasing international oil prices." The fall of the rupee vis-à-vis the US dollar is another reason for the marginal hike.

Sources said the government was waiting for the Presidential elections to be over before opting for the unpopular measure that could well fuel inflation.

Earlier this year on May 23, oil companies had raised prices by Rs 7.50 per litre. Since it was the largest single-shot increase in the retail price of petrol, opposition parties cried foul and staged nationwide protests.

This forced the ruling coalition to go in for a partial rollback. First a cut of Rs 2.02 per litre was effected on Jun 3. Petrol prices were further reduced by Rs 2.46 per litre on Jun 29.

OneIndia News