Fuel consumers may get respite as oil companies are to analyse global oil prices before further hikes

New Delhi: In a bid to analyse the global oil price movement before making further revisions, oil marketing companies kept the retail price of petrol and diesel unchanged on Friday, as per an IANS report.

The global crude prices which had crossed $77 a barrel, have now softened a bit with differences surfacing in oil cartel OPEC over the continuation of production cuts.

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) in its attempt to bring down the fuel rates on Thursday asked the government to bring petrol and diesel under the ambit of GST.

The trader's body also urged the central government to withdraw the increased excise duty that was introduced last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement issued, CTI remarked that crude oil was the cheapest in the last 16 years in 2020-21.

However, the central government increased the excise duty on petrol by Rs 13 and diesel by Rs 16, during the pandemic, between March and May 2020, when crude oil became cheaper.

At the moment, a litre of petrol costs Rs 100.56 in Delhi and an equal quantity is retailing at Rs 106.59 in Mumbai. The price remains at Rs 100.62 per litre in Kolkata and Rs 101.37 per litre in Chennai.

Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram are some major cities where petrol price has crossed the three-figure mark. There are many other smaller cities and towns where petrol is retailing at over Rs 100 per litre.

Diesel, too, has seen an equally sharp increase after OMCs started hiking rates in the first week of May. It is retailing at over Rs 90 per litre in most major cities and has even crossed the century-mark in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar.

The sharp rise in fuel prices has turned into a massive burden for citizens, especially those from poorer sections of society. However, the government has announced no plans to slash high taxes on fuel; the plan to include petroleum products under GST has also not materialised.

Consumers can now only expect that any further raise in fuel price is checked as OMCs start cutting the retail price of petrol and diesel over the next few days to provide relief.