Petroleum companies on Sunday decided to hike the price of petrol by Rs. 1.55 per litre, excluding taxes. However, the price of diesel was kept unchanged.

The new prices will take effect from Sunday midnight.

Petroleum companies review the price of petrol every two weeks. While petrol price has been deregulated since June 2010 and the price is market determined, the government still controls the price of diesel, and allows only minor revisions.

The price of petrol was increased thrice last month.

The main reason behind hike is the rupees value against dollar, which plays a major role in petrol pricing because of crude imports.

Rupee finished at 59.56/57 to dollar last week.

Earlier on 8th July, Rupee had hit a record low of 61.21 against dollar.