New Delhi: Four days after the government slashed the fuels prices by Rs 2.50, the prices of petrol and diesel reached a three-week high on Monday.

The petrol and diesel prices in Delhi were Rs 82.03 per litre and Rs 73.82 per litre, respectively.  In Mumbai, the prices were Rs 87.50 per litre for petrol and Rs 77.37 per litre for diesel. Delhi still has the lowest prices for petrol and diesel among metros despite the Kejriwal government not cutting VAT. Mumbai, on the other hand, continues to be the costliest. 

The Brent crude oil prices fell by more than 1 per cent on Monday after the US said it may grant waivers to sanctions against Iran's oil exports next month. Saudi Arabia will reportedly replace any potential shortfall from Iran, reported Reuters.

On October 5, the government deducted a total of Rs 2.50 -- excise duty ₹1.50 per litre and state-owned fuel retailers gave ₹1 per litre subsidy -- bringing in much needed relief for the consumers. 

Many BJP-ruled states had cut the VAT levied on the two fuels by Rs 2.50 paise a litre, as requested by the Centre, to ease the cost burden on consumers by Rs 5 a litre. 

Experts feel state-owned fuel retailers absorbing Re 1 per liter would mean a loss of Rs 9,000 crore on an annualised basis.

Petrol prices had hit an all-time high of ₹84 per litre in Delhi and ₹91.34 in Mumbai on October 4. Diesel rates too had peaked to ₹75.45 a litre in Delhi and ₹80.10 in Mumbai. Following the twin decision, they fell to ₹81.50 per litre of petrol in Delhi and ₹86.97 in Mumbai.

Diesel rates fell to ₹72.95 in Delhi and ₹77.45 in Mumbai on October 5.

On Sunday, the rates hit a three-week high.

After the Centre cut excise duty by ₹1.50 per litre and asked PSU oil firms to subsidise fuel by Re 1, Maharashtra and Gujarat governments were among the first to announce a matching ₹2.50 cut.

They were later joined by Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana Assam, Uttarakhand, Goa and Arunachal Pradesh with similar moves. Jammu and Kashmir, which is under governor’s rule, too reduced tax on the two fuel.

Maharashtra, however, reduced VAT only on petrol and not on diesel.

Even before the excise duty cut, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh had last month reduced VAT to cushion consumers for a spate of price increases.

The reduction in excise duty, only the second in four years of BJP-led NDA rule, will dent central government revenues by ₹10,500 crore and was aimed at cooling retail prices that had shot up to an all-time high.

The NDA government at the Centre had raised excise duty on petrol by ₹11.77 a litre and that on diesel by ₹13.47 a litre in nine instalments between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell, but then cut the tax just once in October last year by ₹2 a litre.