The central government has increased petrol and diesel prices across the country from Friday, May 15 – a move that was much speculated about for the past several days amid the ongoing standoff between Iran and the US. This increase in prices for retail customers has happened after almost four years. As a result, prices of petrol and diesel have been increased by ₹3 per litre. Today, May 18, fuel prices remained unchanged across the country, and no changes were seen compared to yesterday.
Effect on the prices of these things
Market experts believe that this increase in prices of petrol and diesel may ultimately impact household budgets, grocery bills and everyday services. This may increase the cost of FMCG companies’ products – such as biscuits, snacks, instant noodles, edible oil and packaged food – as these goods are largely dependent on the transport network. As a result, logistics constitute a large portion of their operating costs; Therefore, increase in diesel prices may increase their delivery costs.
Additionally, prices of fruits and vegetables are also likely to rise as the cost of transporting them from farms to wholesale markets and then to customers’ homes is expected to increase. Milk prices have already increased; Amul and Mother Dairy have recently increased milk prices by about ₹2 per litre, which they have mainly attributed to increase in transport and handling costs.
City Petrol Price (per litre) Diesel Price (per litre) Delhi Rs 97.77 Rs 90.67 Mumbai Rs 106.68 Rs 93.14 Kolkata Rs 108.70 Rs 95.13 Bengaluru Rs 106.21 Rs 94.10 Chennai Rs 103.67 Rs 95.25 Lucknow Rs 97.55 Rs 90.82 Patna Rs 108.55 Rs 94.63 Raipur Rs 103.56 Rs 96.55 Ranchi Rs 100.84 Rs 95.76