Fuel prices hiked 5th day in a row; no excise duty cut likely

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) Thursday hiked prices of petrol and diesel in Delhi for the fifth straight day, pegging petrol at Rs 74 per litre and diesel at Rs 72.22 per litre, on the back of the recent rise in Brent crude price to $40 per barrel. Since June 6, OMCs have hiked prices of petrol and diesel in Delhi by Rs 2.74 per litre and Rs 2.81 per litre, respectively.

Experts say the Centre is unlikely to cut excise duty on fuel, as it needs to raise revenues to fund efforts to deal with COVID-19.

Sunil Kumar Sinha of India Ratings and Research said the rising fuel prices will likely not impact demand in the economy