Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan breathes fire at OPEC as petrol price reaches for Rs 100-mark
NEW DELHI: Petrol price reached Rs 2.50 short of the century at Ganganagar in Rajasthan, crossed the Rs 92 per litre-mark in Mumbai and made a new record at Rs 85.45 in Delhi – considered the benchmark market – after retailers raised prices on Friday after a two-day lull.
Diesel too made new records in Mumbai and Delhi at Rs 82.40 and Rs 75.63, respectively, as the staggered impact of rising crude was passed on to consumers and amplified by high Central and state taxes.
But even as the clamour for tax cut grew louder to mitigate the impact of relentless rise in pump prices, the government shifted the blame on OPEC, the grouping of oil-exporting countries accounting for about 40% of global production and 60% of traded supplies.
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan publicly accused OPEC of setting oil on fire by “backtracking” on its “commitments” made when crude had crashed and demand evaporated in April as Covid-19 brought the world to a halt.
“They had gone for some production cut. There was a huge slide in price. As a consumer, we supported them at that time. On this point, for a longer period of a positive cycle, you have to have balance and reasonable price. In that plan they assured something on which they have backtracked recently,” Pradhan told a foreign news channel.
