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IOC Halts Sixteen-Day Surge With 1 Paisa Fuel Price Cut

State-run IOC rolled back most of the fuel price cut within hours after halting a 16-day hiking spree.

Diesel pump at petrel station in Delhi, India  (Photographer: Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg)
Diesel pump at petrel station in Delhi, India (Photographer: Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg)

State-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., the country’s largest oil retailer, triggered confusion early on Wednesday over the quantum of auto fuel price cut after increasing them for 16 straight days.

The company, according to information on its website, lowered petrol prices by 60 paise a litre and diesel by 56 paise. Within hours, Indian Oil rolled back most of that. At the end of it, prices of auto fuels came down by a token 1 paisa.

Oil retailers had raised fuel prices for sixteen days in a row after following a nineteen-day freeze in the run up to the Karnataka assembly election.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre had faced criticism by the opposition over the continuous hike in fuel rates despite a drop in international crude oil prices.

The rally in oil prices -- that took Brent crude to the $80-mark for the first time since 2014 -- stalled last week after Saudi Arabia and Russia proposed easing output curbs after eliminating an inventory surplus that had sparked the biggest price crash in a generation.

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