New Delhi: State owned oil marketing companies on Monday cut petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2 a litre as international prices touched a five- year low. The opposition had recently criticised the government for not passing the full benefit of the recent slump in international crude oil prices to consumers by hiking excise duties in these two products of mass consumption.
In Hyderabad, petrol will now cost Rs67.02 a litre against earlier price of Rs69.19 a litre. This is the lowest price of petrol in 44 months. Diesel will cost Rs55.02 a litre against Rs57.19 earlier. This is the eighth straight reduction in petrol prices since August, and fourth in diesel since October.
The prices of petrol and diesel were last revised downwards on December 1, by Rs0.91 a litre and Rs0.84 per litre respectively on the back of declining international oil prices. On December 2, the finance ministry had hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs2.25 and diesel by Rs1 a litre. Internat-ional prices of crude have been falling and the Indian crude oil basket prices has fallen to $60 per barrel on Friday.
