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(Representative image) NEW DELHI: Petrol prices hit a new record high on Thursday in the national capital with oil marketing companies (OMCs) raising rates by 35 paise a litre to Rs 86.65.
Diesel prices were also raised by 35 paise a litre to Rs 76.83 in Delhi. In Mumbai, a litre of petrol now costs Rs 93.20 and diesel is now sold at Rs 83.67 per litre. Prior to this, OMCs
(Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum) paused rates for seven straight days before pushing the rates higher today. Petrol price was very close to breaching the
all-time high level of Rs 84 a litre -- reached on October 4, 2018 -- when it touched Rs 83.71 a litre on December 7, 2020. But the march had been halted ever since then with no price
revision by the OMCs in the month. The price rise started again only on January 6, 2021. The current price rise is largely on account of steep increase in central taxes of petrol and diesel
and firm crude prices. The budget has also imposed a new agriculture infrastructure and development cess. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget imposed a Rs 2.5 per litre agri
cess on petrol and Rs 4 a litre on diesel. But this was offset by an equivalent reduction in excise duty. As of now, a basic excise duty (BED) of Rs 2.98 per litre is levied on petrol, and
another Rs 12 a litre is charged as special additional excise duty (SAED) and Rs 18 as road and infrastructure cess. To accommodate the agri cess, the BED was cut to Rs 1.4 and SAED to Rs
11. Similarly, on diesel, BED was cut from Rs 4.83 to Rs 1.8 a litre and SAED to Rs 8 from Rs 9 per litre. Meanwhile, oil companies executives had earlier hinted that petrol and diesel
prices may increase further in coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making losses. (With inputs from agencies)