After a massive hike of Rs 7.50 a litre in May, oil companies had announced two price cuts in June aggregating to almost Rs 5 a litre as international oil prices had started coming down to almost $ 90 a barrel. With today’s increase, it seems oil companies are now becoming proactive in doing a regular revision of prices which had been put on hold for some months due to political considerations.

It appears the 70 paise may not be the end of the hike as oil companies indicated that they have not passed on to the consumers the full impact of increase in international oil prices.

Indian Oil Corporation said the hike was announced due to increasing international oil prices and movement in the rupee-dollar exchange rate. At these levels, the IOC is incurring losses of about Rs 1.41 a litre on petrol but since prices are volatile it has been decided to pass on to consumers only half of it at this stage.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed the latest hike "without consulting allies" and demanded its immediate rollback. Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa also slammed the Centre’s "wrong (fuel) pricing policy" and wanted a rollback.