Good news! Petrol price cut by Rs 2.42 per litre, diesel by Rs 2.25 per litre

New Delhi, Feb 3: Just few days ahead of Delhi Assembly elections, the Government on Tuesday cut the petrol prices by Rs 2.42 a litre and diesel by Rs 2.25 per litre, says media reports.

This is the 10th straight reduction in petrol price since August and sixth in diesel since October.

Despite reductions, petrol will cost more than ATF, which is of superior quality and used in aircraft. A litre of jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs Rs 46.51 per litre in Delhi.

New rates of petrol and diesel will be effective midnight tonight, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation's largest fuel retailer, announced here.

After the price cuts, petrol price is the lowest since September 2010 while diesel is cheapest since March 2013. ATF has a higher octane than petrol and diesel is a heavier fraction in the distillation process. Traditionally, auto fuels being of lesser quality than ATF would cost less.

Four consecutive excise duty hikes since November, totalling Rs 7.75 a litre on petrol and Rs 7.50 on diesel, have however, reversed this.

But for these, the cumulative reduction of Rs 17.11 per litre in petrol price in ten cuts since August and Rs 12.96 a litre on diesel since its deregulation in October, would have been higher.

Petrol and diesel prices were last cut on January 17 by Rs 2.42 and Rs 2.25 a litre respectively. "Since that price revision, international prices of both petrol and diesel have continued to be on a downtrend and the rupee-US dollar exchange rate has appreciated.

The combined impact of both these factors warrant a decrease in retail selling prices of both petrol and diesel," IOC said.

OneIndia News

(With agency inputs)