State-run oil marketing companies yet again revised diesel price in major cities across the country. Though there was no change in petrol prices, diesel prices were hiked by 15 paise on Saturday. Notably, this is the 9th jump in diesel prices this month as companies are hiking diesel rates across the metros. In Delhi, diesel now retails at ? 81.79 per litre witnessing a historic high. Earlier, the oil companies increased the diesel prices by 12 paise in Delhi on Monday.

Notably, the oil marketing companies did not revise the fuel prices in the last few days, retailing in the national capital at ? 80.43 per litre. While petrol prices remaining unchanged for a week now, the diesel price has been raised ninth time in this month itself making it costlier by ? 1.45 per litre this month. The price of diesel was hiked 17 paise about 7 days ago.

This surprising hike in diesel prices despite slow demand has been impacting the transport sector as rising fuel cost has abridged their margins. With diesel rates climbing each day, the gap between the two auto fuels has further widened in Delhi. Last month, we saw an unprecedented development in the diesel rates that surpassed petrol rates in the capital city.

As of today, the petrol price remained untouched and it retailed at ? 80.43 per litre in Delhi while the people will have to shed ? 81.79 for a litre of diesel. A similar trend was noticed in other metro cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai were petrol prices remained untouched while diesel rates were increased. Diesel now cost ? 79.97 a litre and ? 78.73 a litre in Mumbai and Chennai respectively. In Kolkata, diesel today was selling at ? 76.91. The prices of petrol and diesel vary from state to state due to the value-added tax (VAT).

Oil marketing companies started revising the two auto fuels from June 7 after a huge gap of 82 days because of the nation-wide lockdown. Since then, petrol and diesel prices have been hiked by ? 9.5 per litre and ? 12 per litre respectively.