Petrol Price Hits 4 Years High, Cost of Diesel Hits All-Time High in Delhi on April 1, 2018: Check Rates In Metros

New Delhi, April 1: Fuel prices in India sky-rocketed on Sunday with petrol hitting a four-year high of Rs. 73.73 a litre. On the other hand, diesel rates touched an all-time high of Rs. 64.58 in the national capital on Sunday, renewing calls for the government to cut excise tax rates.

According to the price notification on IOC website, petrol and diesel rates in the national capital have gone up by 18 paise per litre each in Delhi. In Mumbai, petrol was priced at Rs 81.59 per litre while diesel was Rs 68.77 per litre.

India has the highest retail prices of petrol and diesel among South Asian nations as taxes account for half of the pump rates. As per reports by PTI, the petrol price in the national capital at Rs. 73.73 a litre is the highest since September 14, 2014 when rates had hit Rs. 76.06. Meanwhile, the diesel price at Rs. 64.58 is the highest ever, with the previous high of Rs. 64.22 being on February 7, 2018.

Check Rates of Petrol in Metro Cities on April 1, 2018:

Check Rates of Diesel in Metro Cities on April 1, 2018:

The central government had cut excise duty by Rs. 2 per litre in October 2017, when petrol price reached Rs. 70.88 per litre in Delhi and diesel Rs. 59.14. Because of the reduction in excise duty, diesel prices had on October 4, 2017 come down to Rs. 56.89 per litre and petrol to Rs. 68.38 per litre.

Earlier this year, the Oil Ministry had sought a reduction in excise duty on petrol an diesel to cushion the impact rising international oil rates but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget presented on February 1 ignored those calls. To recall, Jaitley had raised excise duty nine times between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell, but then cut the tax just once in October last year by Rs. 2 a litre.

In June 2017, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation had dumped the 15-year old practice of revising rates on the 1st and 16th of every month. Instead, they adopted a daily price revision system to instantly reflect changes in cost. Since then, prices are revised on a daily basis.

To recall, the government had between November 2014 and January 2016 raised excise duty on petrol and diesel on nine occasions to take away gains arising from plummeting global oil prices. In all, duty on petrol rate was hiked by Rs. 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in those 15 months that helped government's excise mop up more than double to Rs. 242,000 crore in 2016-17 from Rs. 99,000 crore in 2014-15.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 01, 2018 06:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).