State-owned oil companies, on Wednesday, increased the prices of petrol and diesel by around 40 paise per litre, effective midnight 

Petrol would cost Rs 30.33 per litre in Delhi as against the prevailing Rs 29.93 a litre while diesel prices have been
increased from Rs 19.07 to Rs 19.47 per litre, official sources said in New Delhi.

Petrol prices in Kolkata have been hiked by 40 paise to Rs 31.84 per litre while in Mumbai a litre of petrol would now
cost Rs 34.18 as opposed to the prevailing Rs 34.73. Chennai saw a 44 paise per litre increase in petrol prices to Rs
32.99.

Diesel prices in Kolkata increased from Rs 20.45 to Rs 20.86 per litre. In Mumbai, the hike was of 48 paise per litre
to Rs 24.72, while in Chennai diesel prices rose from Rs 20.93 per litre to Rs 21.38 per litre.

The latest hike comes close on the heels of about Re 1 per litre increase in petrol and diesel prices announced on January 2.

Sources said the petroleum ministry had at that time allowed oil firms to pass on to the consumers only a part of $5 per barrel increase in crude oil prices.

"Crude oil prices during the first half of January have remained almost the same as that in second fortnight of December. The 40 paise increase would now take the domestic petrol and diesel prices to import parity levels," they said.

In accordance with the mechanism evolved by oil companies to review prices of petroleum products every fortnight after dismantling of the APM, officials of Indian Oil Corporation, IBP, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum met on Wednesday to match retail prices of motor spirit and high speed diesel with import parity price.

As per the mechanism evolved after dismantling of Administered Pricing Mechanism this fiscal, oil companies are to fix consumer retail price for petrol and diesel on 1st and 16th of every month based on the average procurement cost of crude during the forthnight.