On Friday, July 17, 2020, state-run oil firms which include the Indian Oil Corporation, hiked the prices of diesel across metros, however, the prices of petrol remain unchanged.
In a rare occurrence, the price of diesel remains slightly higher than petrol in the national capital. Down below is a table which states the current pricing of diesel and petrol in four metros.
| City | Petrol | Diesel |
| Mumbai | 87.19 | 79.56 |
| Delhi | 80.43 | 81.35 |
| Kolkata | 82.10 | 76.49 |
| Chennai | 83.63 | 78.37 |
In the last couple of months, the rates of oil prices have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT. Oil companies earlier on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs. The freeze in rates was imposed in mid-March soon after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel to shore up additional finances. Oil PSUs Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) instead of passing on the excise duty hikes to customers adjusted them against the fall in the retail rates that was warranted because of fall in international oil prices.
However, the increase in prices of petrol and diesel have made the situation very difficult for the working-class, especially the farmers, who need diesel in their every day lives and are already burdened with the surge in the oil prices.
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