Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Sunday that the government would soon come up with a solution to rising petrol and diesel prices. The price of a litre of petrol in Mumbai was as high as Rs 84.07 in Sunday’s price revision by state-owned oil companies.

The price of both fuels reached record highs on Sunday – Rs 76.24 a litre for petrol and Rs 67.57 a litre for diesel in Delhi. The increase in price of petrol since the previous day was 33 paise in Delhi, the highest since the oil companies began to revise prices daily in June 2017.

Petrol price has breached Rs 80 a litre in Bhopal, Hyderabad and Srinagar, and is still at Rs 70.26 – the cheapest – in Panaji.

“I accept that citizens of India and specially the middle class suffers due to fuel price hike,” Pradhan said, according to ANI. “Factors like less production of oil in OPEC [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] and hike in price of crude oil in international market affect the price. The Indian government will soon come out with a solution.”

State-run oil companies resumed the dynamic pricing mechanism on May 14 after stable prices for 19 days. Retail prices were frozen between April 24 and May 13, when campaigning was on for the Karnataka Assembly elections. Oil companies are estimated to have lost about Rs 500 crore because of the price freeze for three weeks, PTI reported. International crude oil prices have risen in the period, while the rupee has fallen against the United States dollar – both factors make the fuels costlier.