Retail prices of petrol and diesel have been marginally lowered on Wednesday by oil marketing companies.

In Delhi, the prices of petrol and diesel have fallen by 0.2 per cent each to reach ₹90.99 per litre and ₹81.3 per litre, respectively. Similar reduction has taken place across the states.

With four states — Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and TN — headed to elections , fuel prices remained steady at their all-time high for last 24 days even as Brent crude climbed near $70 per barrel. Prices skyrocketed since the start of this year as the central government refused to lower the excise duty that it had hiked during the height of the coronavirus pandemic last year.

This is the first time oil marketing companies have reduced retail fuel prices since September last year, which was the only month when prices were marginally lowered in 2020. The new reduction comes at a time when international crude prices have also been easing over the past two weeks, now hovering closer to $60 per barrel.

The consumption of both petrol and diesel has fallen as high prices weakened the Indian demand. Diesel consumption, which has not yet recovered to pre-Covid levels, fell on a month-on-month basis by 5 per cent in January and then 3.8 per cent in February to 6,550 million tonnes. Petrol consumption also fell 6.7 per cent to 2,435 million tonnes in February, after declining 4 per cent in January.

After nosediving during the coronavirus lockdowns, petrol consumption had been steadily recovering since August last year, while diesel consumption had been on an upward climb since September last year.

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