NEW DELHI, May 23 (Agencies): In the steepest ever hike, petrol price was increased on Wednesday by Rs 7.50 a litre with effect from midnight tonight. State-owned oil firms said they will raise petrol price by Rs 6.28 per litre excluding local sales tax or VAT. The hike translates into Rs 7.50 per litre in Delhi.
Petrol in Delhi currently costs Rs 65.64 a litre and after the increase it will be priced at Rs 73.14 per litre. While petrol will now cost Rs 77.69 per liter in Kolkata, the price in Mumbai will be Rs 78.16. In Chennai the petrol price will now be Rs 77.23, effective midnight.
Reacting to the hike, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said that the petrol price hike is a burden on the common man. She feels that a hike in petrol price hike has taken place due to lack of planning and mismanagement. “I am worried about the country`s economy,” she said. She also added that no one discussed the price hike with her.
BJP flayed the steep hike of Rs 7.5 per litre in petrol price terming it as “unreasonable” which will make the life of the common man “miserable”.
“This whole petrol price hike is clearly unreasonable, arbitrary and is condemned as it will put further inflationary pressure and lead to further rise in prices. Life of the common man will become more difficult and miserable,” BJP`s chief Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
He said the petrol price hike “will have a cascading effect and prices are going to go out of control. It is condemnable.”
He alleged the government`s inept handling of the economic situation was responsible for this. “The gross mismanagement of food and general economy by the UPA regime has led to the decline of the Rupee,” he said, adding it has also led to the rise in prices of petroleum products.
He wondered why the government was unable to check the decline of the Rupee as compared to other currencies of the world while smaller countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh and China were not witnessing such a decline of the value of their currencies.
With rupee depreciation leading to jump in oil import bill, Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Tuesday had said that there was an immediate need to raise fuel prices.
The government had decontrolled petrol price in June 2010 but rates were last increased on November 4 last year. This despite oil price rising by 14 per cent and 7 per cent fall in value of rupee against the US dollar.