New Delhi, February 1: In a relief to common man, petrol and diesel prices have been slashed by Rs 2 per litre. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget 2018 speech on Thursday announced an excise duty cut on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre. This means, duties on petrol and diesel have been rejigged and the basic excise duty has been cut by Rs 2 per litre. Also, Rs 6 additional excise duty abolished and Rs 8 a litre road cess has been introduced by the government.

In January, fuel prices touched a 40-month high in Mumbai. Petrol price in Mumbai was Rs 80.10 per litre, while diesel was priced at Rs 67.10. To recall, the last time fuel prices crossed this high was in August 2014.

Prices in international markets have been fluctuating since the last few weeks and are being reflected in domestic rates.  In wake of the rallying crude oil price, the oil ministry had demanded excise duty cut from the finance ministry. In the last month, Petrol and diesel prices rose to fresh levels in Delhi and other cities in the country. Fuel prices in Mumbai recently had breached Rs 80 per litre mark and diesel price was at record high.

In the last month, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Chairman Sanjiv Singh on Monday responding to the charges of government meddling in fixing of fuel prices said that Petrol and diesel prices in India are to a “large extent” aligned to international rates. It must be noted that the prices are revised daily based on 15-day rolling average rate of their international benchmark.

In June last year, state-owned oil companies dumped the15-year old practice of revising rates on 1st and 16th of every month and instead adopted a dynamic daily price revision to instantly reflect changes in cost.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 01, 2018 02:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).