Bhopal: Spiralling fuel prices touching fresh record levels has come as a major blow to people. Middle class households are facing the pinch of price rise as it has disrupted the domestic budget. Just ahead of the Karnataka polls, the prices of petrol and diesel had remained stagnant at around Rs 80 plus for almost 20 days, and post elections the fuel prices shy rocketed.
Breaching the previous high, petrol and diesel price touch Rs 82.47 and Rs 71.66 respectively in the state capital on Tuesday. Premium petrol costs Rs 85 per litre in the city. There is demand from several quarters to abolish daily dynamic price revision as oil companies purchase fuel at fixed rate for three months, while the retail price continues to fluctuate on daily basis.
Residents rued that it won’t take much time for petrol price to cross Rs 100. “We have no other option but to buy fuel at this high cost to run our vehicles. Government should bring down the price as it is affecting our budget,” said a fuming customer at a petrol pump.
Petrol Pump dealers Association has demanded that if dynamic fuel pricing is abolished, people will get petrol at fixed rate for three months for which Oil companies sign contract. Ajay Singh, president of Petrol pumps dealers association said dynamic pricing should be abolished in country like India. “ The system is good for those countries which produces oil and not in country like ours.
Best solution is abolition of dynamic pricing as Oil companies purchase oil at fixed rate for three months. So at least, for three months, people will get petrol at fixed price. Secondly, it should be brought under GST to ensure that it is uniformly priced in the country,” said Singh.
Singh said fuel should be included in the GST ambit to bring down its prices in states like MP where it is highly priced, however, the state government has been opposing this as it would affect its revenue. Excise duty, which is around 36 per cent in country and VAT is round 22 per cent plus Rs 1.5 per litre cess are levied which makes petrol and diesel very costly. Excise duty is imposed by Central government while VAT is part of state government. Indian Oil Corporation earns profit of Rs 21346 crore in 2017 so oil companies are not supposed to be concerned on profit, Singh elaborated.
