New Delhi: The Union government on Friday (May 14) hiked petrol and diesel prices by Rs 3 per litre each, the first such rate increase in more than four years, reported Press Trust of India.The fuel price hike comes amid mounting losses of fuel retailers due to surging global crude prices amid the West Asia Crisis.While petrol price was hiked to Rs 97.77 per litre from Rs 94.77 in Delhi, diesel will now cost Rs 90.67 as against Rs 89.67 per litre previously, reported PTI, citing industry sources.Barring a one-off reduction by Rs 2 a litre each on petrol and diesel in March 2024 – right before the Lok Sabha elections – fuel prices had remained on freeze since April 2022.For other metro cities, while in Mumbai petrol and diesel will cost Rs 106.68 a litre Rs 93.14 per litre, respectively, in Kolkata, petrol now costs Rs 108.74 per litre and diesel Rs 95.13. In Chennai, prices petrol prices increased to Rs 103.67 per litre and this figure was Rs 95.25 per litre for diesel.Fuel rates vary across states owing to differences in value-added tax.Earlier this week, Union oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said that at present three fuel retailers were losing about Rs 1,000 crore per day, and the cumulative losses in a quarter were sufficient to wipe away all the profit they made in a full year. He had put the losses at about Rs 1 lakh crore.Opposition parties have condemned the fuel price hike and said that it will push crores of Indians into deeper economic distress.“This crisis is the outcome of Prime Minister Modi’s disastrous foreign policy and his complete surrender of India’s strategic autonomy before the United States and Donald Trump. India was pressured into cutting energy imports from Russia and Iran, weakening our energy security and exposing the country to global shocks and manipulation. Today the nation is paying the price for a foreign policy driven not by national interest but by political servility,” Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D. Raja posted on X on Friday (May 15).“It is widely believed that Trump is using the legal cases against Modi’s favourite billionaire Gautam Adani as leverage to arm-twist India into deals harmful to our sovereignty and economy,” Raja added.India’s crude oil stocks have fallen by 15% since start of West Asia CrisisOn the other hand, as per estimates by commodities data and analytics firm Kpler, since the start of the West Asia crisis triggered by US and Israel’s war on Iran, India’s crude oil stocks have fallen by 15% as refiners moved to maintain processing rates as imports declined, reported Economic Times.At the moment, India’s crude stocks are at 91 million barrels, falling from 107 million barrels at the end of February, according to Kpler’s inventory data. This figure includes strategic petroleum reserves (SPR), commercial inventories, and refinery stocks. The estimates exclude pipeline stocks.India consumes about 5 million barrels of oil a day, which allows the current stock to cover around 18 days of demand. Sujata Sharma, joint secretary in the petroleum ministry said on Thursday (May 14) that the current crude stocks can feed up to 60 days of national consumption with the stock estimate including cargoes loaded on India-bound ships.