Soon after the Karnataka elections ended, oil companies have increased the prices of petrol and diesel in India. Before this, Companies did not increase the prices of petrol and diesel since April 24. IOC has increased the price of petrol by 17 paise and diesel by 21 paise per litre. According to the IOC website, now petrol in Delhi will be available at Rs 74.80 per litre. In Mumbai, its price will be Rs 82.65 per litre. In Kolkata, it will be available at Rs 77.50 per litre, and in Chennai, it will be available in Rs 77.61 per litre in Chennai. Similarly, the price of diesel in Delhi is Rs 66.14 per litre, Rs 68.68 in Kolkata, Rs 70.43 in Mumbai and Rs 69.79 in Chennai.
Despite the rising prices of crude oil, the oil companies did not change the prices of petrol and diesel for 19 days before the Karnataka elections. From June 16, 2017, prices of petrol and diesel are changing daily. Earlier, government oil companies used to review oil prices twice a month. This is not the first time that a balm on fuel price pain has been applied. The prices at petrol pumps of state-owned fuel retailers like Indian Oil Corp (IOC) were cut between 2-4 paise every day in the first fortnight of December 2017 before Gujarat went to polls. They started moving up immediately after polling for assembly elections in Gujarat concluded on December 14, leading to speculation that government may have asked oil companies to hold the prices.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) chairman Sanjeev Singh said,”the price of petrol and diesel haven’t changed from April 24, the step was taken to normalize them. He said that it is just a coincidence that such a thing happens during the Karnataka elections. Before stabilising the prices, it was increasing 25-35 paise every day. With this, the price of fuel was changed to 2-3 rupees every 15 days. He added”.
Leave a Comment