Petrol price hiked by 98 paise, diesel by Rs 1.15 per litre in last 5 days

New Delhi: Petrol prices have been hiked by 98 paise and diesel by Rs 1.15 per litre in last 5 days, after a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus.

Petrol price was hiked by 17 paise a litre and diesel by 21 paise as PSU oil firms began passing on the spike witnessed in international rates to consumers on May 14. This spiral in prices of transport fuels comes amid continuous gains in crude oil prices globally which have gone past the USD 80 per barrel mark.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 75.61 per litre while diesel rates were increased to Rs 67.08 a litre, according to a price notification issued by state-owned oil marketing companies on Friday.

Oil PSUs, who had kept rates unchanged for nearly three weeks before Karnataka went to polls despite input cost spiking, reverted to daily revision in prices no sooner had the state voted to elect a new government on Saturday.

State-owned oil marketing companies are estimated to have lost about Rs 500 crore as they absorbed higher cost resulting from the spike in international oil rates and fall in rupee against the US dollar.

Oil PSUs, which have been since June last year revising auto fuel prices on a daily basis to reflect changes in the cost, have kept pump rates static since April 24, an analysis of daily price notification issued by oil companies showed.

Oil PSUs have refused to acknowledge if the freeze followed a government diktat so as to help ruling BJP in Karnataka.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Chairman Sanjiv Singh last week said that the state-owned firms were "temporarily moderating" prices to avoid sharp spikes and panic among consumers.

With PTI Inputs