2016 Petrol Price Revision Monday February 01,2016

Petrol price cut by 4 paise a litre, diesel by 3 paise a litre 

Petrol price was on Monday February 01,2016 slashed by a marginal 4 paise a litre and diesel by 3 paise a litre as the government raised excise duty to deny consumers full benefit of falling international oil prices. 

 Now petrol in Delhi would be available for Rs.59.95 per litre as against Rs.59.99 earlier. For diesel, one has to shell out Rs.44.68 for a litre as compared with Rs.44.71 previously, according to Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC).

The reduction should have been Rs.1.04 per litre in petrol and Rs.1.53 in diesel because of a $4 per barrel fall in international rates in the last fortnight.

But the government on the eve of the due price revision on Sunday raised excise duty on petrol by Rs.1 per litre and that on diesel by Rs.1.50.

The third increase in excise duty in a month will get the government Rs.3,200 crore in additional revenue during the remainder of the current fiscal.

 Taken together with the two excise duty hikes in November and December 2015, the government is expected to get Rs.17,000 crore in additional revenue. The five levy hikes total to Rs.4.02 per litre on petrol and Rs.6.97 on diesel.

Petrol price should have been Rs.55.93 a litre and diesel at Rs.37.71 if the excise duties were not hiked on the five occasions.

The reduction in auto fuel prices on Monday was the fifth cut in two months on back of softening global oil prices.

Rates were last cut by 32 paise a litre for petrol and 85 paise for diesel from 16 January. Prior to that, rates were slashed by 63 paise on petrol and Rs.1.06 on diesel on 1 January.

In two reductions in December, prices were cut by Rs.1.08 on petrol and 71 paise on diesel.

State-owned fuel retailers IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) revise rates of the fuel on 1st and 16th of every month based on average oil price and foreign exchange rate in the preceding fortnight