Petrol, diesel prices shoot up, but you won't have to pay extra at the fuel station

Petrol price in India today: Petrol and Diesel prices in India have remained unchanged for the last 18 days since April 24 as it appears the government has informally given a signal to oil marketing companies not to raise the prices ahead of Karnataka elections scheduled for tomorrow.  Globally, oil prices remained near multi-year highs on Friday as the prospect of new US sanctions on Iran tightened the outlook for Middle East supply at a time when global crude production is only just keeping pace with rising demand.  Benchmark Brent crude oil was unchanged at $77.47 a barrel. On Thursday Brent hit $78, its highest since November 2014. US light crude was up 10 cents at $71.46, having touched a 3.5 year high of $71.89 on Thursday.

However, Indian Oil Corporation Chairman Sanjiv Singh disagrees. He said the decision of oil PSUs not to hike petrol and diesel prices since April 24 was aimed at stabilising them and it 'incidentally' coincided with Karnataka elections.

The move, he added, is for the benefit of consumers as daily spikes in the range of 25 paise to 35 paise used to result into  a change in fuel prices by Rs two or Rs three every 15 days.  

"We strongly believe this was unrealistic. So, we thought of stabilising that, tapering it down to a certain extent. Now incidentally it has coincided with some of the state elections. It was not the intention of oil marketing companies," he told PTI. 

Singh also said change in oil prices in international markets is not supported by fundamentals. There were other factors also, he said.

IOC had put a freeze on petrol and diesel prices between 16 January, 2017 and 1 April 2017, too, said an ET report. Analysing the historical fuel price changes by IOC when the company followed fortnightly revision of fuel prices, the report said the freeze in oil prices coincided with elections in five states including Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur during the January-April 2017 period.

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It seems the OMCs may resume revising rates on daily basis soon after Karnataka elections are over. The hike could be at least Rs 2 per litre, say experts, to balance the accumulated losses of three-four weeks. 

Petrol prices in New Delhi on Friday remained stagnant at Rs 74.63 per litre and diesel prices stood at Rs 65.93, the highest the country has recorded so far.