New Delhi: The fuel prices continue to rise in the country unabated as the petroleum companies hike petrol rate by Rs. 30 paise/liter and diesel by 35 pise/liter on Monday. The total hike on petrol has reached to Rs. 4 Rs. and Rs. 4.10 paise respectively in the last one week.

Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 99.41 per litre as against Rs 99.11 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 90.42 per litre to Rs 90.77.

The prices of fuel prices have been increased in all the States of the country, however, based on the transportation cost and state tax, the final price of each litre of petrol and diesel varies from state to state.

Interestingly, Monday's hike is the sixth hike in the prices by the petroleum companies.

On the first occasions, prices were increased by 80 paise a litre, which was the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was introduced in June 2017. On Sunday, petrol price went up by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise.

In all, petrol prices have gone up by Rs 4 per litre and diesel by Rs 4.10.

It may be noted that no price hike was done during the assembly elections for the five states, though the petroleum companies were saying that they were facing huge financial loss due to the hike in price of crude oil in the international market following the Ukraine war.

But after the elections were held and various parties formed the governments, the prices of fuels started going up significantly.

The fuel companies said that it was necessary to hike the prices as the rate of crude oil was rising during the 137 day hiatus from around USD 82 per barrel to USD 120 in the international market.

Moody's Investors Services last week stated that state retailers together lost around USD 2.25 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the election period.

Oil companies "will need to raise diesel prices by Rs 13.1-24.9 per litre and Rs 10.6-22.3 a litre on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of USD 100-120 per barrel," according to Kotak Institutional Equities.

India is 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs and so retail rates adjust accordingly to the global movement.