Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
Whenever petrol prices are hiked, there are protests by the public and the opposition for a few days, before everybody goes back to their routine but it is to be remembered that the country's economy is being fuelled by the blood of the common man. Many nations face higher inflation rates due to the rising oil prices in the world. As a consequence, the higher inflation rates have devastating impact on both production and consumers that leads to big difference between oil importing and oil exporting nations. Though the oil prices are market based Government can reduce tax as a populist measure.
High inflation, coupled with skyrocketing food prices, has botched to come down. The oil price rise results in a transfer of income from oil importing to oil exporting countries according to a shift in terms of trade. The increase in the price of oil has risen the cost of fertilizers which need petroleum or natural gas to manufacture. Natural gas has its own supply issues as oil. The rise in petrol price in turn has a rippling effect. As all the commodities are transported across India on vehicles that run on petrol or diesel, so increase in petrol price results in price rise of these commodities as well.
The additional burden of rise in fuel prices is becoming unbearable for the public and is another slap on people's face. Petrol has become an indispensable part of our day-to-day life, and we can't imagine our life without it. But the petrol prices are sky rocketing, and it is eventually going to affect each and everything that we use in our day to day life. Price hike affects only the low wages or fixed salaried middle class families as compared to higher wages salaried class. Due to increase in the prices of petrol and diesel there has been increase in the prices of fares of vehicles causing lot of problems for the common man and poor people who have to travel long distances for work.
The increase in price of petrol and diesel directly affects the common man making the situation miserable for him. Due to increase in the prices of petrol and diesel there has been rapid increase in the prices of the food products and other essential commodities. The poor sect5ions of the society really suffer a lot. The poor people work hard to earn money and if the prices of the essential commodities rise than life would become very hard for these people.
Inability on price control of petrol diesel will add fuel to public dissatisfaction on government performance and opposition will take a plea on this issue although they know government has nothing to do on international price control of crude oil. There has always been a lot of discussion and debate on the hike in the prices of fuel. Most problems arise because of the unchecked growth of vehicles with low mileage or gas guzzlers. Fuel prices need to be rationalized. Much of the taxes from fuel pricing are used for development work. This, when clubbed with populist subsidies, becomes terrible. A sharp spike in the price of oil will also reverse the declining trend on inflation and put pressure on central and state governments to cut taxes on petrol and diesel, which is likely to adversely impact their non-goods and services tax revenue. In spite of the heavy price hike, the rich continues to live the life they are used to while the burden is borne by the poor and the middle classes. As we are fully dependent on the international market for fuel, we need to cut short our dependence on it. What we need is development of bio-diesel, and government should allocate more funds for developing alternate sources of energy as well as develop high capacity goods and public transport system. The government should advise state governments to cut ad valorem duty on petrol and diesel. It should cut its own excise duties on petroleum products.
The government needs to rethink on the deregulation of petrol prices. The increase in fuel prices has affected the most. Time has now come when we need to think of alternatives such as biofuels and solar power. It is to be remembered that Petrol is inflammable, but the cost of the petrol is highly inflammable.
