TNI Bureau: While the entire nation was busy debating the sensitive issue of multi-crore Italian chopper kickback scam, the oil companies hiked the petrol prices by Rs 1.50 per litre and diesel prices by 45 paise per litre.

The hike will be effective from midnight today. This is the first hike in petrol prices in over three and half months. The decision to hike the fuel prices was taken after the global crude prices reached $113.24 per barrel and the international gasoline or petrol prices increased to $128.57 per barrel.