Diesel price hiked after polling ends

After a brief hiatus, diesel prices were today hiked by Rs 1.09 a litre, excluding state levies.

The monthly increases in diesel rates, which had been put on hold just before India began voting to elect a new government, were back no sooner than polling ended today. The hikes, effective from midnight tonight, are excluding state sales tax or VAT and actual increase will be higher and will vary from city to city, the oil companies announced. 

Diesel price in Delhi will be hiked by Rs 1.22 a litre after including taxes, to Rs 56.71 per litre, while it will cost Rs 65.21 a litre in Mumbai as against Rs 63.86 at present. 

State-owned oil companies, which had last hiked diesel price on March 1, will lose Rs 5.71 a litre even after today's hike. The Cabinet had in January last year decided that diesel prices should be raised by 40-50 paise a litre every month until losses on the fuel are wiped out. However, oil firms skipped the hikes due on April 1 and May 1 as UPA did not want to take unpopular decision during election season. The deferred hikes have now been implemented.

Before today's increase, diesel prices had risen by a cumulative Rs 8.33 a litre in 14 instalments since January 2013. There will be no change in petrol rates even though the oil firms were losing about 50 paise a litre due to depreciation in value of rupee against the US dollar.