Petrol And Diesel Price Hikes Creating Record In New Delhi

Petrol price rise reached its four-year high mark while diesel price attained an all-time high mark in New Delhi thus creating record in our national capital recently.  About 18 paise rise in Petrol and disesl prices per litre was noticed in Delhi. Among all the South Asian nations, India holds the highest price in Diesel and Petrol commodities.

According to the recent updates,  the petrol and diesel prices per litre in Delhi are Rs.73.73 and Rs.64.58 respectively while the corresponding prices in Chennai are Rs. 76.48 and Rs. 68.24 respectively. Following this, the prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Piped Natural Gas (PNG) have also been rised.

Before June 2017, the state owned oil companies like HPCL,BPCL,IOCL were revising the petrol and diesel prices for every 15 days. This had been in practice for 15 years. But, since June 2017, the Central Government allowed to revise the prices every day according to the daily variations in global market. 

Before the submission of Annual Financial Budget 2018-19 in the Parliament, Oil Ministry requested the Government to reduce the excise duty of Petrol and diesel to control its increasing prices in India. As expected, Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister of India has neglected the Oil Ministry's request in the budget because the excise duty was cut by Rs.2 per litre by the Centre in October 2017 only, then the Centre asked the state Govts to reduce the VAT taxes on the fuel commodities thus moving the ball cleverly in the court of State Governments.  

Except, a few BJP ruling states - Maharshtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Preadesh, all other BJP ruling states and regional party ruled states ignored the Centre's suggestion.

With Karnataka Elections coming ahead and Lok Sabha Elections to be held in a year, the Central Governmenthas to somehow lend its ears to public views at this moment. In these circumstances, again requests are sent to Modi Government to reduce the exxcise duty of these commodities.