PATNA: Diesel prices per litre touched the highest ever Rs 74.57-mark in Patna on Tuesday. It sold for Rs 74.46 per litre on Monday.Petrol at Rs 83.70 was costlier than diesel only by Rs 9.13 on Tuesday. Speed petrol, however, sold at Rs 87.45 per litre.Trade sources attributed the reducing gap between the petrol and diesel prices to the fact that petrol prices went up and down whereas the diesel prices showed only upward trend during the last few days.According to Bihar Petroleum Dealers Association president Prabhat Kumar Sinha, the prices of petrol and diesel went down throughout the month of June and remained in the range of Rs 82 and Rs 72 respectively. The first week of July again saw an upward trend with the prices touching the Rs 83 and Rs 73-marks respectively. The diesel price as on date is the highest ever, he said.“If we compare the current prices with the last highest prices in the month of May, petrol price has gone down by 21 paise whereas diesel price has gone up by 52 paise across Bihar,” Sinha said.A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies’ Prof D M Diwakar said the crude oil prices fell down by US $7 per barrel during the past two weeks. It was US $72.77 per barrel on Tuesday as against US $80 per barrel two weeks ago.This decrease, the economist said, should lead to reduction in retail prices of petrol and diesel in India. “But nobody can guarantee that the international oil market scenario will necessarily lead to fall in retail prices... It depends entirely on the government policies and how sincere the government and oil companies are towards their consumers,” he added.

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