Petrol prices were on Sunday increased by 82 paise a litre and diesel by 61 paise a litre, reversing the declining trend of the past six months.

The raise, effective from midnight on Sunday, is the first since August 2014 and follows firming of oil prices in the international market.

A litre of petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 57.31 a litre from Monday as against Rs 56.49 currently, while diesel will cost Rs 46.62 as against Rs 46.01 at present, oil companies announced here on Sunday.

Prices of petrol and diesel were previously revised downwards on February 4 by Rs 2.42 a litre and Rs 2.25 a litre, respectively. This decrease was effected on the back of declining international oil prices.

Prior to Sunday’s increase, petrol was cut on 10 occasions since August and diesel six times since October.

Cumulatively, petrol had been cut by Rs 17.11 a litre in 10 reductions since August and diesel by Rs 12.96 a litre since its deregulation in October.

The reduction would have been bigger but for four consecutive excise duty raises since November, totalling Rs 7.75 a litre on petrol and Rs 7.50 on diesel.

“There has been a steep increase in international prices of both petrol and diesel and the rupee-dollar exchange rate has also depreciated slightly since the last price revision. The combined impact of both these factors warrants increase in retail selling prices of both petrol and diesel,” stated Indian Oil Corp, the nation's largest fuel retailer.

"The movement of prices in international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be closely monitored and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes," the IOC statement said.