Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Prices of petrol and diesel are likely to be cut by upto Rs 2.50 per litre from Friday midnight due to fall in international brent crude oil prices.

Sources said, with the fall in crude oil price to about USD 85 a barrel, oil companies in India are likely to slash the prices of petrol and diesel.

If the price of petrol is cut, it will be the sixth consecutive cut since August 2014 while for diesel it would be the first since the government deregulation its prices.

In the month of October, the price of petrol was reduced by about Rs 2 per litre on two ocassions.

In the same month, on October 19, the Narendra Modi government deregulated diesel prices which let to a reduction of Rs 3.37 a litre in the fuel price.

This cut in the price of diesel was the first in over five years when it was last cut on January 29, 2009 when they were reduced by Rs 2 a litre to Rs 30.86.

Since then, rates had climbed to Rs 58.97 a litre. It now cost sRs 55.6 per litre in Delhi.

Right now, petrol costs Rs 66.65 per litre in the national capital while in Mumbai, it is priced at 74.46 per litre.