No respite for common man as fuel rate rises by Rs 6.40 per litre in 10 days

New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices were today hiked by 80 paise a litre each, taking the total increase in rates in the last ten days to ₹ 6.40 per litre.

In Delhi, petrol and diesel are being sold at ₹101.81 per litre and ₹93.07 per litre respectively, while in Mumbai, which has the costliest fuel among metro cities, petrol and diesel prices per litre are at ₹116.72 and ₹100.94 after an 84-paisa hike.

In Chennai, the price of petrol is ₹107.45 and diesel price is ₹97.52, an increase of 76 paise. The petrol price in Kolkata is ₹111.35 per litre and diesel is ₹96.22 per litre.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.

This is the ninth increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22.

Prices had been on a freeze since November 4 ahead of the assembly elections in five states, a period during which the cost of crude oil soared by about USD 30 per barrel. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has attributed the fuel price rise to the disruption in supply chains and the resultant increase in global oil prices due to the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the daily hike in fuel prices. Gandhi said that PM Modi's daily to-do list includes raising petrol, diesel and gas prices, making farmers more helpless and showing "hollow dreams" of employment to the youth.

"Prime Minister's daily to-do list - how much increase in petrol, diesel and gas rates, how to stop discussion on people's expenses, how to show hollow dreams of employment to the youth, which public sector company to sell and how to make farmers more helpless," the Lok Saba member from Wayanad said in a tweet in Hindi.