'Beyond Rs 48/ltr for petrol is public exploitation'

As petrol and diesel prices continue to increase unabated, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday sent a stern message to the government led by his party at the Centre saying, it was an “exploitation” of the public.

“Petrol should not be more than Rs 48 per litre. Everything else is an exploitation,” Swamy said in Mumbai on a day when petrol reached a record high of Rs 79.15 per litre in Delhi, where it is the cheapest compared to all metro cities and most of the state capitals.

In a single day petrol prices were hiked by 31 paise a litre, perhaps the steepest one-day increase since petrol and diesel were left to the market for daily revision.

Diesel too rose by 39 paise per litre and sold at an all time high of Rs 71.15 per litre.

Both fuels were the costliest in Mumbai— petrol sold at Rs 86.56 a litre and diesel at Rs 75.54 a litre.

Petrol prices have risen by over Rs 2 per litre since August 16.

Diesel prices have risen by Rs 2.42 a litre during the same period, the data uploaded on Indian Oil Corporation website showed.

According to government officials the rise in prices is a temporary phenomenon and it is due to fall in the value of rupee against the US dollar and a spike in global crude oil prices which have gained $7 per barrel in the past fortnight.

Rupee was trading at 71.06 against the dollar on Monday which is a lifetime low.

Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg expected the rupee fall and crude hike to be temporary factors going ahead as India's capital flows remained robust.

In line with petrol and diesel, CNG prices were also hiked in Delhi by 65 per kg.

Prices for piped natural gas, supplied to households for cooking, were hiked by Rs 1.11 per standard cubic metre. The increase was effected on Sunday.