Petrol price to go up by Rs 5 per litre

New Delhi: In the steepest hike ever, state-owned oil companies have increased petrol price by aboutRs.5 per litre with effect from midnight tonight.

The increase in petrol price, which the oil firms had been holding since January even though crude oil had touched a two-and-a-half-year high, came a day after election results of five state assemblies were announced.

IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum will hike rates betweenRs.4.99 andRs.5.01 per litre in Delhi with effect from midnight tonight.

After the announcement, the price of petrol in Delhi will go up fromRs.58.37 toRs.63.37; in Mumbai, petrol will now costRs.68.08 per litre. People in Kolkata will have to shell outRs.67.50 to get a litre of petrol and in Chennai, the price will now reachRs.66.93 per litre.

This is the ninth hike in petrol prices in as many months.

The government had freed petrol price from government control in June but the state-owned oil firms had not raised prices on an 'informal' dictate from the oil ministry.

"The hike needed to make domestic rates at par with international prices wasRs.9.50-10 per litre but oil companies choose to hike rates by just half of that," an industry official said. "Another hike in petrol price is on cards soon."

source: NDTV.com