Petrol prices cut by Rs 2, diesel prices by Rs 1.46 in last 14 days

New Delhi: Petrol prices were reduced by Rs 2 and diesel prices by Rs 1.46 per litre in the last 14 days. After bouts of reduction, Petrol and diesel prices were kept unchanged on Wednesday.

Petrol prices in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai were slashed by Rs 2, Rs 1.96, Rs 1.98 and Rs 2.1 per litre respectively in the past 14 days (Since May 29), as per data available in Indian Oil Corporation.

Similarly Diesel prices were reduced by Rs 1.46 each per litre in Delhi and Kolkata. In Mumbai prices were reduced by Rs 1.55 and in Chennai prices were decreased by Rs 1.56 per litre.

India's fuel demand rose by 3.8 percent in May as frequent price increases dented auto fuel consumption. Fuel consumption in May totalled 18.71 million tonnes as compared to 18.1 million tonnes in the same month last year, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed.
The rise was lower than 4.4 percent increase witnessed in April, 2018.

During May, petrol sales was up by a meagre 2 percent at 2.45 million tonnes while diesel consumption was flat at 7.54 million tonnes.

The primary reason for this small growth was the increase in retail selling price after state-owned oil firms lifted pre-Karnataka poll hiatus to resume daily price revisions from May 14.

In the following fortnight, petrol price was raised by Rs 3.8 a litre and diesel by Rs 3.38 a litre. Prices started to fall towards the month-end and are off-record highs now.

Petrol price hit an all-time high of Rs 78.43 a litre and diesel peaked to Rs 69.31 on May 29 in Delhi. Today, petrol costs Rs 76.58 a litre and diesel Rs 67.95.

In April, petrol sales had risen 9.2 percent while diesel, which makes up for roughly 40 percent of all the petroleum product consumed in the country, posted a 2.6 percent growth in consumption.

With PTI Inputs