Petrol and diesel prices anyway have been changing every day since 16 June 2017. The change in prices has at the most been a few paisa everyday, both ways – sometimes increasing, sometimes decreasing.
However, in the past month, there has been a steady uptick in prices. Petrol prices have moved from Rs 63.35 per litre in Delhi on 30 June to Rs 65.26 per litre as of 31 July. In the same period, diesel prices have also seen an upward trend. Diesel has moved from Rs 53.50 per litre on 30 June to Rs 55.50 per litre.
Also Read: How You Can Keep Track of Petrol and Diesel Prices Daily
Dealer Margins Increased
Petroleum dealers, however, have been demanding an increase in their margins per litre of fuel, citing increasing overhead costs. This demand by dealers to the oil marketing companies has been going on for several years, with threats of protests as well.
Oil marketing companies have finally agreed to increase dealer margins – which means the cost petrol and diesel will also go up for you, the consumer. There are two types of petroleum dealers: A site, where the infrastructure is set up by the oil marketing company, and B site, where the infrastructure investment is the dealer's except for the dispensing machinery.
Earlier, for every litre of petrol sold, irrespective of what category the dealer was from, the dealer margin was Rs 2.56. Now, an A site dealer would make between Rs 3.01 to Rs 3.41 per litre (depending on the volume of fuel he sells in a month). While B site dealers make between Rs 3.22 and Rs 3.55 per litre on petrol.
On diesel, margins have been increased from Rs 1.66 per litre earlier to between Rs 1.99 and Rs 2.44 for A site dealers and Rs 2.17 to Rs 2.62 for B site dealers.
What does this mean for you? As a consumer, the increase in prices would be between Rs 0.45 to Rs 1.09 per litre of petrol, and Rs 0.51 to Rs 0.78 for diesel. However, petroleum dealers are not happy. They say that oil marketing companies have effectively hiked what's called an LFR fee – licence fee recovery – about eight times in the past few years, so this increase in margin is too little.
As of now, negotiations for even higher margins continue between dealers and oil marketing companies. We will let you know if your pocket will be further pinched.
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