Day 296

Again the petrol price has been increased by 70 paise per litre from the midnight last night. In the last month, the prise was cut by Rs 2 as an average. But now the state owned oil companies like Indian Oil Corporation are saying that they are forced to increase the price due to hike in the price of oil in the international market. It is also been said that the oil companies in India has already suffered loss of Rs 2300 crore on the sale of petrol in April and May this year. Out of this amount, Indian Oil Corporation has lost Rs 1050 crore. The statement issued by the Indian Oil Corporation hinted that there will be another price hike in the recent future if the price of oil in international market will continue to rise.

If we compare the prices of petrol in the four metros then we will find that Delhi has the minimum increment of 70 paise per litre. The current price of petrol in Delhi is Rs 67.78 and revise rate is Rs 68.48. The difference is 70 paise per litre. But in Mumbai, the current price is Rs 73.35 and the revise rate is Rs 74.23. The difference is 88 paise per litre. In Kolkata the current price is Rs 72.74 and the revised rate is Rs 73.61. The difference is of 87 paise per litre. In Chennai, the current price is Rs 72.27 and the revised rate is Rs 73.16. The difference is 89 paise per litre. Similarly different states have different increments. These differences are due to taxes in different states.

I wonder that when the prices will go down so that it will be less painful for the middle class of India. It’s the middle class only which gets affected by the hike of the prices of oil and oil products. But we can’t blame the government entirely. It’s true that even I’m affected by the price rise. The general reaction of the people of India is against the government. But if we go in the economic details then we will find that the state owned oil companies are suffering loss of Rs 1,60,000 crore from the loss of sensitive petroleum products under market price. Still the oil firms are selling the diesel at the loss of Rs 10 per litre, Rs 27 per litre on the sale of kerosene and Rs 319 per cylinder of the cooking gas.

Even sometimes the government is helpless to hike the price even after giving huge subsidies on the petroleum products. The second reason of the hike in the petrol price given by the Indian Oil Corporation is that the exchange rate of Dollars and Indian Rupees. The price of oil is in Dollars and these days the exchange rate is high as Rs 55.36. Now the time has come to move towards the alternate source of fuel. We have to switch over to hybrid cars and bikes or automobiles moving on solar energy.