The hike in the fuel prices that had been the cause of much anxiety in the city was finally implemented from Saturday. Surprisingly, while a mere rumour about a hike in fuel prices had caused a furore in the city last week, the actual implementation of hiked prices was received without any murmur of protest.

After the revision, the price of a litre of petrol now stands at Rs 54.98 while that of diesel is Rs 38. The price of an LPG gas cylinder is Rs 334.43.

The impact of the hike was felt on Saturday which was the first day of its implementation. On Saturday, people were apprehensive about the prices, which caused a slight dip in the sales, but the sales were back to normal soon after, said Vijay Bhave, divisional president of the All India LPG distributors Federation. The State Governments decision to waive the octroi and the Pune Municipal Corporations initiative to waive the four per cent of VAT brought down the price of the cylinder from Rs 358.30 to Rs 334.43, he added.

Baba Dhumal, president of the Pune Petrol Dealers Association echoed Bhaves views. In Pune city, the VAT and octroi that were waived brought down the revised price of both petrol and diesel by two per cent. The hike has not brought about much change in the demand of fuel, said Dhumal.

However, a representative from an oil marketing company said that as the panic buying had caused a lull in the buying pattern, the revoking of octroi and VAT didnt have the desired impact. The rumours of the hike sparked panic buying. By the time the actual hike in the fuel prices were announced and implemented, the inventories of the consumers were already full. Hence, even though the prices of the petrol and diesel were brought down due to the VAT and octroi waiver, the purchase of fuel didnt shoot up, he said, adding that the purchasing pattern of the consumers was expected to be back to normal, by Monday.

On an average, HPCLs Loni Kalbhor petroleum terminal sold around 600 KL of petrol and over 900 KL of diesel. However, after the hike, only 400 KL of petrol and 800 KL of diesel have been purchased, officials said.