Why do leaders of our government shy away from comparing our petrol prices with Pakistan? Our neighbours were the whetstone on which sundry political philosophy was sharpened. What is changing now? Why not think about petrol prices in Pakistan too? When asked by consumers if the government plans a relief in this regard, the answer is no. The way petrol prices spiral up remains embarrassing. The government is smug with confidence and indifferent to the citizens’ plight.
We have a gala time driving motor vehicles, but the sort of fuel needed to propel their powerful engines is undeniably petrol. Its price continues to go up and fills us with quiet and loud heart attack-type spells when we start thinking about its current cost. We are bound to shiver in suspense.
The news report makes it clear that petrol in Pakistan sells at around 105 Pakistani rupees or 46.37 INR. This hints at India’s capacity to be able buy two litres of petrol at a cheap cost. Despite this, our political leaders do not bring down the price. Factors that hike the petrol price are the cost of crude oil, refining costs and profits, distribution and marketing costs, and fuel taxes.
I believe that India is competing with Hong Kong, where excise duty has been hiked by 13 times. The country has seldom thought of bringing the excite duty down like Venezuela, which has the cheapest petrol across the world. No matter how crazily the petrol price graph moves upwards or the value of Indian currency goes down, the government ensures that you pay a big price for it. To put it in simple terms, our government is putting an exorbitant excise duty on petrol.