Petrol and diesel prices held steady across metro cities on February 6, the latest price notification issued by fuel retailers showed.
Petrol and diesel in Delhi cost Rs 96.72 per litre and Rs 89.62 a litre, respectively. In Mumbai, petrol is being sold for Rs 106.31 per litre and diesel for Rs 94.27 per litre.
Petrol and diesel are priced at Rs 102.63/litre and Rs 94.24/litre in Chennai and at Rs 106.03/litre and Rs 92.76/litre in Kolkata, respectively.
The Union Budget for 2023-24 announced investment of Rs 30,000 crore to state-owned fuel retailers to make up for the massive losses they ran because of holding petrol and diesel prices despite rise in cost in a bid to help the government contain inflation.
In other news, the government has hiked windfall profit tax levied on domestically-produced crude oil as well as on the export of diesel and ATF, in line with firming international oil prices, according to an official order.
The levy on crude oil produced by companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has been increased to Rs 5,050 per tonne from Rs 1,900 per tonne, the order dated February 3, said.
Crude oil pumped out of the ground and from below the seabed is refined and converted into fuels like petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF).
The government has also hiked the tax on export of diesel to Rs 7.5/litre from Rs 5/litre, and the same on overseas shipments of ATF to Rs 6/litre from Rs 3.5/litre.
The new tax rates came into effect from February 4.
The levy on both domestic crude oil and fuel exports is now off the lows it had hit last month.
Tax rates were cut at the last fortnightly review on January 17, following softening in global oil prices. International oil prices have since then firmed, necessitating the hike of a windfall tax.
India first imposed windfall profit taxes on July 1, joining a growing number of nations that tax super normal profits of energy companies. At that time, export duties of Rs 6/litre ($12 per barrel) each were levied on petrol and ATF and Rs 13/litre ($26 a barrel) on diesel.
