Accordingly, the pump price of petrol in Delhi, which fell to Rs 103.97 a litre at 6 a.m. on Thursday from previous day's level of Rs 110.04 a litre, remains at the same level on Friday. The diesel prices also remained unchanged in the capital at Rs 86.67 a litre.

 

In the financial capital Mumbai, petrol continues to be priced at Rs 109.98 a litre and diesel Rs 94.14 a litre.

 

Prices also remained static on Friday in Kolkata where the price of petrol reduced by Rs 5.82 to Rs 104.67 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 11.77 to Rs 89.79 per litre on the previous day.

 

Petrol price in Chennai also remained at Rs 101.40 per litre and diesel Rs 91 .43 per litre.

 

Across the country as well price of the fuel largely remained unchanged on Friday barring a few states where VAT reduction would translate into lower prices from Friday.

 

The good news on the fuel price front is that global crude prices have softened to around $81.5 a barrel now from a three year high level of over $85 a barrel just a few days back. If the price line holds, fuel prices in India could come down further and further increases could be checked.

 

Before price cuts and pause, diesel prices have increased 30 out of the last 42 days taking up its retail price by Rs 9.90 per litre in Delhi.

 

Petrol prices have also risen on 28 of the previous 38 days taking up its pump price by Rs 8.85 per litre.

 

Since January 1, 2021 petrol and diesel prices have risen by more than Rs 26 a litre before the duty cuts.

 

The excise duty cut by the Centre is the first such exercise since the onset of Covid pandemic. In fact, the government had revised excise duty on petrol and diesel sharply in March and again in May last year to mobilise additional resources for Covid relief measures.

 

The excise duty was raised by Rs 13 and Rs 16 per litre on petrol and diesel between March 2020 and May 2020 and was standing high at Rs 31.8 on diesel a nd Rs 32.9 per litre on petrol before finally the Centre decided on duty cut.