Post-Dussehra cheer for motorists as fuel prices drop for 2nd day in Mumbai

The festival of Dussehra continues to bring cheer to motorists as prices of petrol and diesel in Mumbai witnessed a dip for the second consecutive day on Friday.

In Mumbai, the petrol price was slashed by 24 paise to Rs 87.84 per litre, while diesel saw a decrease of 11 paise and is now being retailed at Rs 79.13 per litre.

Meanwhile in New Delhi, the per litre cost of petrol and diesel is Rs 82.38 (fall of Rs 0.24) and Rs 75.48 (decrease of Rs 0.10) respectively.

A similar drop in prices was witnessed in other metropolitan cities of Kolkata and Chennai.

Petrol and diesel are being sold at Rs 84.21 per litre and Rs 77.33 per litre, respectively in Kolkata. While petrol prices in Chennai settled at Rs 85.63 per litre and diesel at Rs 79.82 per litre.

On Thursday, the prices of petrol and diesel were slashed for the first time in over two months. Petrol prices were reduced by 21 paise in both Delhi and Mumbai, while diesel cost was cut by 11 paise.

Fuel prices have been soaring since the past few months in the country, drawing sharp criticism from consumers.

While the Opposition has repeatedly blamed the Centre for the steep hike in the fuel price, the latter has maintained that global crude oil prices and other international factors are responsible for the increase in prices of petroleum products.

In a bid to ease the crunch caused by soaring fuel prices, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had, on October 4, announced a reduction of Rs 2.50 per litre on both petrol and diesel prices after curbing excise duty on the commodity by Rs 1.50 per litre.

He also directed all state governments to slash rates, following which several BJP-ruled states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh among others followed suit and announced a reduction in taxes.