Petrol, diesel prices steady for 13th day in a row

New Delhi: Oil marketing companies (OMC) have kept retail prices of petrol and diesel unchanged for the 13th straight day.

In Delhi, petrol is priced at ₹105.41 per litre, while diesel is sold for ₹96.67 a litre. The last price hike was of 80 paise per litre each was taken on 6 April.

OMCs had kept rates steady for nearly four months before they resumed daily price revisions from 22 March. Since then, prices of petrol and diesel have been raised by a total of ₹10 a litre each.

The recent rise in fuel prices has impacted the inflation rate in the country. India’s retail inflation hit a 17-month high in March, led by a sharper-than-expected spike in food and manufactured goods prices. Inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) quickened to 6.95% in March from 6.07% in the previous month.

Crude prices have a major impact on India's economy as the country imports around 85% of its energy requirements.

A report by Fitch Ratings said that gasoline and gasoil retail prices in India, and the marketing margins of the oil-marketing companies (OMCs), should remain aligned with the movement in crude oil prices over the long term, notwithstanding sporadic periods of constant retail prices amidst heightened volatility in oil prices.

International crude oil prices were trading marginally higher on Tuesday.

At 10.50 am, the June contract of Brent futures on the Intercontinental Exchange was at $113.56 per barrel, up 0.35% from previous close. The May contract of West Texas Intermediate on NYMEX was at $108.28 per barrel, higher by 0.06%.