June 24, 2021: Along with other parts of the country, Assam too seems to be headed towards a historic rise in petrol prices. The oil producing state seems to be moving fast towards the petrol at Rs 100 a litre mark. The fuel has been selling at Rs 93.54 a litre in Guwahati on Thursday.  It is just a matter of another Rs 6.46 and the price of petrol in Guwahati would hit a century and touch the psychological mark of Rs 100 a litre.

The hike in fuel prices – 26 paisa per litre for petrol and 6 paisa hike for diesel announced on Thursday has pushed the prices further up setting the alarm bells ringing for the common man who is already reeling under the pressure of high prices of essential items including edible oil. This is the 13th increase this month and the 29th since May 4, when state-owned oil firms had ended an 18-day break in rate revision they observed during assembly elections of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.

Bhopal had last month become the first state capital to breach the Rs 100-mark in petrol prices, followed by Jaipur and then Mumbai. Hyderabad and Bengaluru also saw petrol selling at over Rs 100 last week.

Petrol prices have already breached the Rs 100-per litre mark in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Petrol and diesel prices in the country had touched a record high on Wednesday (June 23). Fuel prices have been rising steadily since the beginning of last month. A major reason behind the steep hike has been the fact that the state-run oil marketing companies have been revising the rates of petrol and diesel and the state and central taxes are adding to the prices.

The retail price of petrol and diesel depends on international crude oil price, rupee-dollar exchange rate and the taxes imposed by the central government and the state governments. The central government and states levy various taxes — excise duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel. Central and state taxes make up for 60% of the retail selling price of petrol and over 54% of diesel. Oil marketing companies like the Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited revise the rates daily.