After raising cooking gas prices by Rs 125 per cylinder last month, state-owned oil firms on Wednesday announced a Rs 10 per cylinder cut in LPG rates on softening international oil prices.
A 14.2-kg LPG cylinder — both for subsidised and market price users — will cost Rs 809 from April 1 as against Rs 819 currently, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said in a statement.
The price cut, which traditionally is announced on the day the change is effective — four times the rates went up in a span of one month — was announced a day ahead of the second phase of voting in West Bengal. The politically-crucial Nandigram constituency from where state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking on her once-trusted aide Suvendu Adhikari, who is contesting on BJP ticket, is also going for polls on Thursday.
“Prices of crude oil and petroleum products in the international market have been on a constant uptrend since November 2020. As India is largely import-dependent on crude oil and the prices are market-linked, the increase in international prices resulted in an increase in the domestic price of petroleum products,” IOC said.
However, due to growing worries about rising Covid-19 cases in Europe and Asia and concerns over the side effects of the vaccine, prices of crude oil and petroleum products in the international market softened in the second fortnight of March 2021.
“Accordingly, oil companies have reduced the retail selling price of diesel and petrol by 60 paise per litre and 61 paise per litre, respectively, at Delhi market over the past few days. There was a corresponding reduction in prices at other markets during this period,” it said.
