Paisa by Paisa, Petrol Prices Continue to Rise; Now Selling at Rs 79.51 in Delhi, Rs 86.91 in Mumbai

New Delhi: Fuel prices in India continued to rise for the 11th consecutive day on Thursday, with petrol and diesel prices in the National Capital touching Rs 79.51 and Rs 71.55 respectively.

In Mumbai, however, petrol continued to rise towards the Rs 87-mark, with early prices showing Rs 86.91 per litre. Similarly, diesel was priced at Rs 75.96.

In Mumbai, petrol and diesel will today cost Rs 86.91 per litre Rs.86.91 per litre & Rs.75.96 per litre, respectively.

Amid rising prices, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday remained non-committal on cutting excise duty to cushion spiralling petrol and diesel prices, which touched an all-time high, saying international oil prices are volatile and have not shown any linear movement.

Jaitley defended criticism that he and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as opposition leaders had mounted against the previous UPA government on the issue saying inflation during those times was in double-digit and they would have failed in their duties if they had not criticised the government of the time for its failure to curb fuel prices contributing to further price rise.

India, he said, is a net buyer of oil and is adversely impacted when rates go up "temporarily".

He termed such movement as "an external factor".

"There is no straight line movement of global crude oil prices. They go up, they come down. In April and May, there was a lot of pressure. In June, they came down. In July, they came down and in August, there is again (an upward) movement. In last two days, there has been some moderation. For six days before that, there was a gain," he said.

On Tuesday, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had stated that the "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 Centre currently levies a total of Rs 19.48 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel. On top of this, states levy Value Added Tax (VAT) - the lowest being in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where a 6 per cent sales tax is charged on both the fuel.

Mumbai has the highest VAT of 39.12 per cent on petrol, while Telangana levies the highest VAT of 26 per cent on diesel. Delhi charges a VAT of 27 per cent on petrol and 17.24 per cent on diesel.

The central 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.

This led to its excise collections from petro goods more than doubling in last four years - from Rs 99,184 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 2,29,019 crore in 2017-18. States saw their VAT revenue from petro goods rise from Rs 1,37,157 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 1,84,091 crore in 2017-18.

(With PTI inputs)