New Delhi, Sept. 8 (PTI): Petrol price in the national capital on Saturday crossed Rs 80 for the first time as the depreciation of the rupee made imports of crude petroleum costlier.
The state owned petroleum majors on Saturday raised prices of petrol by 39 paise a litre and of diesel by 44 paise per litre.
The increase pushed the petrol price in Delhi to Rs 80.38 per litre, and of diesel to its highest ever at Rs 72.51 a litre .
In Mumbai, a litre of petrol costs Rs 87.77 and diesel Rs 76.98.
Fuel prices in Delhi are the lowest due to lower taxes. Mumbai has the highest tax rates.
Almost half of the retail selling price of the two fuels is made up of central and state taxes.
Opposition parties have called for a nation-wide 'Bharat Bandh' on September 10 to protest the spiralling fuel prices.
The spike in prices has renewed calls for a cut in excise duty but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has remained non-committal, saying international oil prices are volatile and have not shown any linear movement.
Since mid-August, petrol price has been marked up by Rs 3.24 a litre and diesel by Rs 3.74 per litre as the rupee hit a record low against the US dollar, making petroleum imports costlier. This is the biggest increase in rates in any fortnight since the system of daily price revision was introduced in mid-June last year.
On Tuesday, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had tweeted: “Relentless rise in prices of petrol and diesel is not inevitable. Because the price is built up by excessive taxes on petrol and diesel. If taxes are cut, prices will decline significantly.”
The Union government currently levies a total excise duty of Rs 19.48 per litre of petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel. Also, states levy a sales tax, which is lowest in Andaman & Nicobar Islands where the tax is six per cent on both fuels.
Delhi charges a sales tax of 27 per cent on petrol and 17.24 per cent on diesel.
The Union government had raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 11.77 a litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in nine installments 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.
