Daily fuel price revision begins in 5 cities

With effect from midnight of April 30 and May 1, oil marketing companies (OMCs) in India have raised the price of fuel – by only 1 paisa for a litre of petrol and by 44 paise for a litre of diesel, excluding state levies. The previous price hike was on April 16 of Rs 1.39 a litre for petrol and Rs 1.04 per litre for diesel.

With the latest revision, a litre of petrol now costs Rs 68.09 in Delhi, Rs 70.68 in Kolkata, Rs 77.46 in Mumbai and Rs 71.17 in Chennai. To tank up on diesel, consumers will have to pay Rs 57.35 in Delhi, Rs 59.61 in Kolkata, Rs 63.12 in Mumbai and Rs 60.71 in Chennai.

Daily fuel price change pilot begins
Importantly, beginning May 1, the OMCs will begin daily revision of petrol and diesel in the cities of Chandigarh, Jamshedpur, Puducherry District, Udaipur and Vishakhapatnam. The move, aimed at mitigating the big jump in rates at the end of the fortnight and better aligning fuel prices to the market dynamics, will be implemented as a pilot run before being rolled out nationwide.

The first change of fuel prices, effective for May 1, for these 5 cities is as under:

Oil marketing companies such as Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, which own over 95 percent of nearly 58,000 petrol pumps in the country, will launch the daily price revision in these 5 cities in the pilot phase.

"It is technically possible to change rates daily, but we have to first do a pilot. Once the pilot is done and its implications are studied, we will extend it to other parts of the country. Ultimately, we will be driving towards market-linked rates on a daily basis at all pumps across the country," a PTI report had quoted IOC chairman B Ashok earlier this month.

According to reports, the practice of revising petrol and diesel prices daily is currently followed in the US and Japan, while rates are changed weekly in Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and the UK.

Petrol and diesel prices are currently revised by the state-owned oil marketing companies on the first and 16th of every month, depending on the movement of fuel prices in the international market, as well as the rupee-dollar exchange rate of the previous fortnight.