Hardening prices of manufactured items during the month may refrain the Reserve Bank of India from cutting rates in its policy review on February 8.
Though the international crude prices were going up, the United Progressive Alliance government's approach was that the subsidy on petroleum products should continue as in the case of food and fertilisers.
Petrol and diesel prices on Tuesday touched fresh highs as rupee dipped to a record low of 71.54 against US dollar, making imports costlier
Reeling under increasing input costs, especially steel, country's biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki India has hiked prices of its products across various models between Rs 1,000 and Rs 18,000. The company has hiked the price of its latest model Swift Dzire by Rs 18,000. It had launched the sedan with an introductory price ranging Rs 4.49 lakh and Rs 6 lakh across different variants.
Basket of crude up 6%, while rupee has depreciated nearly 14% leading to losses
If sources in the Congress party are to be believed, a hike in the price of petrol, diesel and cooking gas seems "inevitable".
The council decided not to levy any additional tax on small petrol and diesel cars of up to 1200 cc as well as on hybrid ones.
Still battling the fallout of last month's steep Rs 7.54 a litre hike in petrol price, the government on Friday said it is not considering raising rates of diesel, domestic gas (LPG) and kerosene for the moment.
Tata Motors has hiked the price of its premium small car 'Indica' by an average of 1.9 per cent with immediate effect.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday ruled out rollback of petrol and diesel price hike saying the nation's fiscal condition did not permit him to do so.
Car maker Volkswagen India on Monday said it will hike the prices of the diesel variant of its mid-sized sedan Vento by 2.2 per cent from July 1 to offset higher input costs.
Facing all-round criticism for a steep hike of Rs 1.80 a litre in petrol price, state-owned oil companies on Friday said they will roll back the increase in rate if the government gives a directive to that effect.
With Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum projected to lose Rs 200,000 crore (Rs 2,000 billion) in revenues on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below import cost, industry sources said a hike in the range of Rs 2 to 5 per litre appears on the cards.
The government last month announced freeing of auto fuel prices from its control, resulting in a Rs 3.50 per litre hike in petrol prices as domestic rates got linked to global movements.
Price has increased from Rs 41.90 to Rs 45.60.
Amid the crisis in Libya, increase in fuel prices would become 'inevitable' if crude oil remains at $100 per barrel, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan said on Monday.
The government is planning a moderate hike of Rs 1-1.50 per litre in the prices of petrol and diesel in view of the rising global crude tags.
The Congresshas announced a three-phased campaign, "Mehngai-mukt Bharat Abhiyaan".
Within a day of the announcement of the increase in fuel prices by Union government, the electronic-bike manufacturers have witnessed record sales in their bikes and received lot of enquiries for setting up dealers network across the country. "Hike in petrol prices is a positive development for the e-bike industry and we expect it will boost the sales of battery driven bikes by at least 5-10 per cent," Avon Cycles Senior Manager (Marketing), U S Dubey said.
India's fuel sales surged past pre-pandemic levels in March on twin impact of the economy rebounding from the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions and anticipation of price increases leading to stocking. In the first two weeks of March, dealers, as well as the public, topped up their tanks in anticipation of an increase in prices that had been on hold in the run-up to the elections in states like Uttar Pradesh. While daily price revisions restarted on March 22, the increases were calibrated.
The Union government has collected Rs 94,181 crore through levy of excise duty on petrol and diesel in the first three months of the current fiscal on the back of a record tax on fuel that yielded 88 per cent higher revenue the previous financial year, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday. Excise duty on petrol was hiked from Rs 19.98 per litre to Rs 32.9 last year to recoup gain arising from international oil prices plunging to multi-year low as pandemic gulped demand. The same on diesel was raised to Rs 31.8 from Rs 15.83 a litre, according to a written reply by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli in the Lok Sabha. This led to excise collections on petrol and diesel jumping to Rs 3.35 lakh crore in 2020-21 (April 2020 to March 2021), from Rs 1.78 lakh crore a year back, he said.
Close on the heels of a 70 paise per litre hike in petrol prices, the Oil Ministry is pushing for an increase in diesel and domestic cooking gas LPG prices, even though it is unsure of political support for the unpopular move with the ruling UPA alliance.
Jet fuel prices on Friday were hiked by 2 per cent - the seventh straight increase this year - to an all-time high, reflecting a surge in global energy prices. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) - the fuel that helps aeroplanes fly - was hiked by Rs 2,258.54 per kilolitre, or 2 per cent, to Rs 1,12,924.83 per kl in the national capital, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers. There was, however, no change in the price of petrol and diesel on Friday.
UPA's largest ally Trinamool Congress on Friday strongly protested the unilateral petrol price hike, but said it has not taken any decision to pull out of the government and entrusted party supremo Mamata Banerjee to have the 'final word' on the issue.
The room for political manoeuvre to raise petroleum prices is the highest at this point in time, says Business Standard.
A moderate price hike for petrol and diesel is on the cards. M S Srinivasan, secretary, ministry of petroleum and natural gas, had last fortnight indicated that 'the hike would be just like the price of tea (Rs 2 to Rs 3).'
The GoM meet on fuel price hike remained inconclusive. The ministers evaluated various options of fuel hike but failed to arrive on a decision.
Honda Cars India Ltd is looking to hike prices of its entire product range in the country from the first week of January as it aims to partially offset the effects of adverse exchange rate and inflation.
The government is likely to decide within the next two days whether to hike petrol and diesel prices to provide some relief to state-run oil marketing companies, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora indicated on Monday.
With the government giving limited freedom to state-run oil companies to fix auto fuel prices within a narrow price band, petrol prices are set to go up by Rs 0.57 per litre and diesel by Rs 0.92 per litre from August 1.
Inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index, stood at 8.66 per cent in April.
The government is unlikely to raise petrol and diesel prices before the end of the current monsoon session of Parliament and may moderate the hike with a dose of excise duty cut, a top official said on Wednesday.
Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S Ramadoss said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should meet the expectations of the people that prices will go down if he took over and 'it is the duty of the new government to do that.'
The BJP on Tuesday announced a nationwide agitation, including a two-hour 'rasta roko'(road blockade) on Wednesday to protest the hike in petrol and diesel prices and the UPA government's "failure to hold the price line".
In August, passenger car sales dropped 18 per cent to 118,142 units, the sharpest decline in nearly 10 months, due to weak consumer sentiment and a month's lockout at Maruti Suzuki. Sales of diesel-driven utility vehicles grew 70 per #162 this is likely to be affected by the price rise.
Petrol prices have been cut in small doses on 20 occasions.
Maruti Suzuki India, country's largest car maker, on Wednesday said it will increase the prices of its entire range of models by up to Rs 10,000 from October first week, mainly due to depreciation of rupee.
