The prices of petrol and diesel have gone up once again as soon as the elections ended. State-owned oil marketing companies increased the price of petrol as well as diesel on Tuesday. This was done after the results were declared for the assembly elections in Puducherry, Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu on Sunday. This is for the first time since February  23 that the fuel prices have been increased.

The price 0f petrol has been increased by 15 paise so now it sits at Rs. 90.55 per litre whereas the price of diesel has been increased by 18 paise so it sits at Rs. 80.91 per litre. These prices are in Delhi on Tuesday at an Indian Oil Corporation Ltd’s outlets. It is being expected that the fuel prices will go up gradually from here on.

This is because the state-run oil marketing companies would have to recover the losses that they incurred by keeping the rates artificially low during the election times for the past two months. The cost of the Indian Crude Basket was $65.71 per barrel on 3rd May. After the coronavirus outbreak last year, the rate fell to $19.90 in April of 2020. However, now the rate has recovered to $63.40 a barrel in April of 2021. The data has been taken from Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. During this time, the Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) resist increasing the prices.

The state-run oil marketing companies and the government says that there is no relation between the elections and the prices of petrol and diesel. According to them, the fuel prices depend on global oil price fluctuations. However, most people have noticed that the prices of petrol and diesel stop increasing or the prices just decrease whenever there is an election that is supposed to happen.

The price of petrol in Mumbai currently is Rs 96.95 per litre which is an increase of 12 paise whereas the price of diesel has gone up to Rs. 87.98 per litre after an increase by 18 paise. In Kolkata, the price of petrol has increased to Rs 90.76 which earlier was Rs 90.62 and the price of diesel has been increased by 17 paise so it stands now at Rs. 83.78 per litre. Bengaluru faced a hike of 24 paise for petrol so now it costs Rs. 93.67 per litre. In Chennai, the price has been increased to Rs. 93.67 after a hike of 12 paise.

Interestingly, the fuel price hike has hit the Indian economy when the global crude oil prices are falling because of the crises of coronavirus that the world is currently facing. India is currently the third-biggest oil importer in the world and the imports have decreased significantly since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The prices of Global Crude Oil is expected to fall even more because of the severe increase in the number of coronavirus cases that our country is facing. Many states are already in lockdown and more states going under lockdown will only affect the Global Crude oil price adversely. The increase in petrol and diesel prices in our country will continue to affect the citizens and the businesses that run in our country.