Check petrol, diesel prices in metro cities today

Representative image: Reuters

The petrol and diesel prices across the country remain unaltered on March 12, even as the international crude oil prices are rallying. The price of petrol and diesel has remained stagnant for over 10 days now with the last uptick on February 27.

Since then, the price of petrol and diesel in New Delhi remained unchanged at Rs 91.17 per litre and Rs 81.47 per litre, respectively, according to the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL). In Mumbai, the price of petrol is Rs 97.57 per litre. The price of diesel stood at Rs 88.60 per litre.

Media reports citing government sources suggest that it has informally directed the state-run oil marketing companies to keep the price of petrol and diesel steady owing to the upcoming assembly elections in four states - West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Union Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had earlier attributed the skyrocketing prices of fuels, to increased demand and assured that they will come down, as the winter season ends.

Meanwhile, the prices of petrol and diesel in Chennai stood at Rs 93.11 and Rs 86.45 per litre, respectively. The price of petrol and diesel in Kolkata was stable at Rs 91.35 per litre and Rs 84.35 per litre, after the poll-bound state of West Bengal cut the state value-added tax (VAT) by Re 1 on February 20.

Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, fell 4.9% to 17.2 million tonnes year-on-year in February, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas showed on March 11. Demand has slipped by 4.6 percent on a monthly basis.

While the Union Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had earlier said that if petroleum products are brought under GST purview, it will be a big relief for the common man, the Finance Ministry on March 9 revealed that no recommendation has been made by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) council to bring petrol and diesel under its ambit.

[Input from agencies]