Common man has reasons to worry as petrol and diesel prices are skyrocketing day-by day-in almost all parts of the country. In Delhi petrol prices touched a fresh high of Rs 74.08 per litre on Friday — the highest in nearly five years. In September 2013 the price had touched Rs 74.10 a litre.
Sources, however, said that due to strong demand for crude oil, petrol prices firmed up on Friday along with surge in crude oil prices due to the ongoing supply cut by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
In metro cities like Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai too, prices climbed to new multi-year highs at Rs 76.78, Rs 81.93 and Rs 76.85 per litre respectively, as per the Indian Oil website. The previous highs in these cities were Rs 78.03 (Kolkata, August 2014), Rs 82.07 (Mumbai, March 2014) and Rs 76.93 (Chennai, July 2014). Diesel prices also touched new record levels on Friday. Similarly, diesel prices rose high in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai and the prices were recorded as Rs 65.31, Rs 68.01, Rs 69.54 and Rs 68.90 per litre respectively.
Reacting on the price rise, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said the Government was concerned about the recent surge in prices of petrol and diesel. “The situation arose because of the price jump of fuel in international market. Price jump in the international market is the highest in past four years, it is due to reasons like the situation in Syria and US’ threat of imposing sanctions on Iran, due to these reasons prices have shot up,”ANI quoted Pradhan as saying.
“Petroleum products need to be brought under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), adding that the Centre and states are slowly moving towards it. Petrol, diesel, natural gas, crude oil and jet fuel (ATF) are currently not included in the GST, which essentially leads to producers not being able to set-off tax paid on inputs from final tax on product,” he added.
On Friday, Brent crude oil was priced around $73.56 per barrel, whereas in 2013 it was priced at over $100 a barrel. Prices of transport fuels are now changed on a daily basis unlike the previous norm of fortnightly revision of prices.