Petrol, diesel prices slashed for 3rd straight day

Petrol price fell steeply by 29 paise today, marking it the highestintraday fall in the last five months. Falling for three consecutive days,petrol price dropped to Rs 74.04 per litre on Saturday, according to IOCL.

Similarly, the diesel price also dropped by 20 paise to Rs 67.15 per litretoday. Before commencing the trend to get cheaper, the prices of petrol anddiesel kept surging for nearly one month. "The current fall in the Brent crudeoil price is likely to bring the petrol price down by around Rs 1.5 in another15-18 days," Ajay Bansal, President, All India Petroleum Dealers Association,told Financial Express Online.

After the crude oil prices fall globally, it takes 15-18 days to show theeffect on the retail prices of petrol and diesel in India, he added. The petrolprice has already dropped by around 60 paise in the last three days.

The main reason behind the surge in fuel prices was a sudden increase in crude oil prices in the international market after the Saudi Aramco oil facility was attacked. However, the crude oil prices resumed the pre-attack level after Saudi Aramco assured of restoring the pre-attack oil production capacity.

Petrol and diesel prices in India largely depend on international crude prices and dollar conversion rates since India imports a larger portion of its domestic oil demand. Expensive oil import can shoot up India's import bill, raising the country's current account deficit. Hence, the fall in prices comes as a sigh of relief for India.