Petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged for the 69th day in a row on January 13, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers.
This is the second-longest duration of paused prices since the daily rate revision was introduced in June 2017, as per the available data. Prior to that, there was an 82-day gap between March 17 and June 6, 2020.
This comes as the central government cut excise duty on November 4, 2021 to give relief from prices that had touched an all-time high.
The government cut the duty on petrol by Rs 5 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 10 a litre resulting in an equivalent reduction in retail pump rates. Following this, many states and Union Territories cut local sales tax or value-added tax (VAT) to give further relief to consumers.
In Delhi, petrol costs Rs 95.41 a litre and diesel is priced at Rs 86.67 per litre on the day.
In Mumbai, the November 4 decline had brought the price of petrol down to Rs 109.98 a litre. Diesel price is Rs 94.14 per litre.
Also read | India’s fuel consumption shows almost no growth in December 2021
In Kolkata, petrol and diesel prices remained at Rs 104.67 and Rs 89.79 per litre, respectively.
Chennai retailed a litre of petrol at Rs 101.40. Diesel price was Rs 91.43 per litre.
The states and Union Territories that had gone for the VAT reduction after the excise duty cut by the Centre include Ladakh, Karnataka, Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Mizoram, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and Daman and Diu.
Next in line were Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Gujarat, Nagaland, Punjab, Goa, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Andaman and Nicobar, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has announced a concession of Rs 25 per litre on petrol and diesel prices for two-wheelers owned by the poor in the state from Republic Day. Soren made the announcement on the completion of two years of the JMM-led coalition government in the state on December 29.
States that have so far not lowered the VAT include those ruled by the Congress and its allies – Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal, Left-ruled Kerala, TRS-led Telangana and YSR Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh have also refused to follow suit.
Congress-ruled Punjab has seen the biggest reduction in the price of petrol in the country after it cut VAT the most while Ladakh witnessed the largest reduction in diesel rates.
Before the excise duty cut, petrol and diesel prices had touched an all-time high across the country. While petrol had crossed the Rs 100 a litre mark in most cities, diesel was above that level in nearly half the country. In Delhi, petrol came at Rs 110.04 a litre and diesel at Rs 98.42.
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