A democratic government’s work is to satisfy the needs of the people, make them heave a sigh of relief; instead, the government has perversely been imposing and burdening the common public with high taxes and duties. No matter under what circumstance the people of the nation have been trying hard to make their ends meet, leaders of the ruling party pay no heed to the sufferings of its own citizens.
Interestingly, rather than chalking out a plan to curb the perplexity of the dreadful situation, ministers in the cabinet are much involved in the blame game, quite an easy way to escape the challenges which they have themselves created in pursuit of their political gain.
Union cabinet minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated a week ago that there has been a rise in fuel prices due to the surge in crude oil globally. What if we are already paying much higher, notwithstanding when the price of a barrel goes down, the government cleverly imposes the high taxes to cover the amount for their own expenditure. This is how they have their own modus operandi to make the daily activities of a commoner more cumbersome during the trying circumstances, in spite of the fact that the stalwart leaders of the ruling party are keen to project themselves as the citizens of an ‘Atamanirbhar Bharat’, which definitely is their wishful thinking.
Fuel prices surged 24 times since May and eight times alone in the month of June. The all-time high value has breached the psychological barrier, the Rs100 mark in six states which in turn impacted the other smaller cities to hike the price. The rate per litre is determined by four factors:
- Excise duty levied by the central government
- VAT(Value added tax) levied by the state governments
- Global crude oil prices
- Gas station dealer’s commission
Till 2010, petrol prices were to be controlled by local dealers, but then they were decontrolled and now being revised on a daily basis. In 2014, crude oil used to trade at 105 Dollar per barrel leading to the price of petrol as Rs 63 in India and now the situation is vice versa. The question which also arises is “ why the price of crude is also rising”, indeed the restrictions in various countries due to covid are now being eased, the rollout of vaccines have mounted the demand and thus, the game of demand and supply is the main factor behind the surge.
Nevertheless, millions of people including daily wagers have lost their livelihood, fuel remains the input factor for the transportation of any commodity to reach the consumer and still the government is relaxed and composed because they have claimed the so-called 35000 crore budget for the healthcare sector and now they need money for the welfare schemes.
The way forward to get the ball of the economy rolling is to reduce the prices of fuel as it would also lower down the inflation rate and make it easy for the poor and the lower middle class to carry on their daily activities. This is a vexatious issue in which no answer other than the reduction of prices would please the public as a state by Nirmala Sitharaman. It’s high time for the government to pull their socks up and deliver what they have committed to the natives of the nation.