Thiruvananthapuram, May 30: Amid growing concerns over rise in fuel prices across the nation, the Kerala government on Wednesday decided to reduce the prices of petrol and diesel by 1 Rupee in the state. Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan informed that the deduction in the fuel prices will come into effect from June 1, 2018.

With the latest development, Kerala becomes the first state to announce a cut in fuel prices. Last week, the government too had stated that it was working on a long-term solution to address the volatility in fuel prices.

On Wednesday, petrol and diesel prices were cut by 1 paisa per litre each, the first reduction after 16 days of relentless price hikes. But, state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) first announced a reduction of 60 paise, only to retract it within a couple of hours citing a technical error. The glitch was that the oil companies this morning announced reduction in petrol price by 60 paise to Rs 77.83 a litre and diesel by 56 paise to Rs 68.75 in Delhi. This was rectified to 1 paisa a litre. After the 1 paisa cut, petrol in Delhi now costs Rs 78.42 per litre and diesel Rs 69.30.

Reports inform that the price effected today is based on average international rate from May 15 to May 29. For tomorrow’s rate, the average from May 16 to May 30 will be taken. Rates had yesterday touched an all time high of Rs 78.43 per litre for petrol and Rs 69.31 a litre for diesel in Delhi.

According to a report by ANI, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) in a statement clarified that the petrol prices in Delhi have gone down by one paisa and not 60 paisa, as reported earlier. “There was a technical glitch in posting the selling prices of petrol and diesel on our website today. The selling prices of petrol and diesel w.e.f 30th May 2018 have been rectified on our website. Today, there is a minor reduction in fuel prices,” IOCL clarified in a statement.

In June 2017, the BJP-led government scrapped a 15-year old practice of revising rates every fortnight and moved to daily revisions. Accordingly, domestic prices now track global oil prices each day. But these price revisions were put on hold for nearly three-weeks, prior to the May 12 Karnataka assembly election.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 30, 2018 04:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).