Petrol becomes cheaper by 32 paise, diesel by 85 paise/litre

State-run oil marketing companies have announced a reduction in the retail price of petrol and diesel effective midnight of 15 January. Accordingly, retail prices of petrol will be reduced by Rs 0.32 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 0.85 per litre effective midnight tonight.

With this change, the retail selling price of petrol in Delhi will become Rs59.03 a litre, against Rs 59.35 per litre currently, while diesel in the capital will cost Rs44.18 a litre, against Rs45.03 at present.

The prices of petrol and diesel will, however, vary from state to state depending on state levies.

''The current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and rupee-dollar exchange rate warrant a decrease in prices, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision,'' Indian Oil Corp said in a release.

The company said it will continue to closely monitor the movement of prices in the international oil market and rupee-dollar exchange rate and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes.

This is the fourth reduction in rates in six weeks on the back of softening global oil prices.

Rates were cut by 58 paise a litre in case of petrol and by 25 paise in diesel on 1 December 2015. This was followed by a 50 paise a litre reduction in price of petrol from 16 December and 46 paise in case of diesel.

On 1 January, petrol price was cut by 63 paise per litre and that of diesel by Rs1.06 a litre

The reductions would have been more but for government raising excise duty on the two auto fuels to take away some of the gains from the crude oil prices slumping to 12-year low of under $30 per barrel.