At Above Rs 100, Sri Ganganagar In Rajasthan Has The Highest Petrol Price In India, Here's Why

Wednesday recorded a 'grim' first in India as for the first time in history the price of regular petrol breached the Rs 100 mark for a litre.

Petrol and diesel prices have been rising constantly in India and in 2021 in less than two months, the prices had gone up more than 20 times.

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On Thursday Madhya Pradesh became the second state where the price of petrol crossed the Rs 100 per litre mark after fuel rates were increased for the tenth day in a row.

Petrol price was hiked by 34 paise per litre and diesel by 32 paise, according to a price notification of State-owned fuel retailers.

While branded or additive-laced petrol, which attracts higher taxes, had crossed the Rs 100-mark in some places in States like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, regular petrol crossed the physiological mark in Sriganganagar town of Rajasthan on Wednesday, and on Thursday it went past that mark in Madhya Pradesh.

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Petrol and diesel prices differ from city to city and state to state based on a number of factors that constitute the final amount that the customers pay.

This includes taxes, cess and transportation charges. Sri Ganganagar, which is located along the border with Pakistan is has a high transportation cost, due to its geographic location.

Rajasthan has the highest level of excise duty and multiple cess levied by the Centre that is pushing petrol and diesel prices to record highs in other states. On a litre of petrol, the Centre charges Rs 1.4 as basic excise duty, Rs 18 as road and infrastructure cess, Rs 11 as special additional excise and Rs 2.5 as agriculture cess.

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Earlier, during her budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the imposition of Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC) of Rs 2.5 per litre on petrol and Rs 4 per litre on diesel. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had ruled out the possibility of a reduction in taxes on petrol and diesel in order to reduce prices.

Oil companies executives said that petrol and diesel prices may increase further in coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making loss on sale of auto fuels.