Price of fuels remains unchanged in metro cities
Akankshya Mukherjee, Mumbai Uncensored, 18th January 2022 :
The prices of fuels remained unchanged. The previous month the Delhi government reduced the Value Added Tax (VAT) which was earlier 30% to now 19.4%. Now the price of petrol in the capital is low as by Rs.8.56 per litre.
In Delhi, the price of petrol and diesel respectively are Rs. 95.41 and Rs. 86.67, while in Mumbai it is Rs. 109 and Rs. 94.14. Among all metro cities, Mumbai has the highest rates of fuels. State run Oil Refiners such as Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, have revised their fuel rates on a daily basis, up for considering the crude oil prices in international markets, and the dollar-rupees exchange rate. All changes in price are effective since 6am every day.
Internationally, the oil prices have grown higher since the last few years since the supply was disrupted because of an attack by the Yemen’s Houthi group over UAE which escalated hostilities, the involved ones were an Iraq aligned group and Saudi Arabian that led to a coalition. Brent Crude Futures went up to 0.5% that is $86.92 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures jumped 1 per cent or 81 cents in a settlement to $84.62 made on Friday.
High prices of crude oils have set up new prices of diesel and petrol records high in India since 2018. However, the Petroleum Ministry of India has stated that they have been trying to speak to the key oil exporting countries to increase the supply of crude and lower the official selling price for Asia. All this have breached the previous records, the rise in fuel price in domestic market is mainly because of the global resurgence.
The Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) have the prices of petrol and diesel unchanged in most cities across the country, there are no fluctuations and the prices stagnant for around 2 months now. In the latest round of meetings, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) group the oil producing countries such as Russia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait have re-affirmed that they will increase total crude oil supply by 4,00,000 barrels only, despite the sharp increase in prices.
India and other countries importing oil have called on OPEC+ for boosting oil supply faster, they have argued that increasing prices of crude oil can lead to undermining the recovery of Global Economy. Low crude oil supply from USA plays a keo role in keeping crude oil prices elevated.
The Central Government had increased levies in 2021 on petrol by Rs 13 per litre and diesel by Rs 16 per litre to shore up revenues due to the pandemic which forced a slowdown in the economic activity.
