Petrol, diesel prices today: Fuel rates remain unchanged for two weeks

The prices of petrol and diesel have remained unchanged for the last two weeks  on Wednesday, 20 April. Petrol and diesel prices were last hiked by 80 paise a litre each on 6 April,Wednesday, taking the total increase in rates in 16 days to ₹10 per litre.

Petrol in Delhi costs ₹105.41 per litre while diesel rates will cost ₹96.67, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.In Gurugram, one litre of petrol will cost ₹105.86 and ₹97.10 for one litre of diesel.

There have been14 increases in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22. In Mumbai, one litre of petrol will cost ₹120.51 and diesel ₹104.77 per litre respectively.

In Chennai, the petrol and diesel prices are at ₹110.85 and ₹100.94 per litre . In Kolkata, the price of petrol is ₹115.12 and diesel is ₹99.83 . In Bengaluru, one litre of petrol will cost ₹111.09 and one litre of diesel will cost ₹94.79.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.

Meanwhile, State-owned fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL may suffer marketing losses in January-March 2022 quarter for holding petrol and diesel prices despite a rise in cost but robust core refining margins and windfall inventory gains should mitigate the potential losses in near term, Fitch Ratings said Tuesday.

The three fuel retailers kept petrol and diesel prices unchanged for a record 137-days between November 2021 and March 2022 despite a nearly USD 27 per barrel rise in crude oil prices. The three companies raised the rates by ₹10 per litre over 16 days beginning March 22 before again hitting a pause button.

"Gasoline (petrol) and gasoil (diesel) retail prices in India, and consequently 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," Fitch said in a note.

*With inputs from PTI