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"At the time of Cabinet decision in June (on oil price hike), we agreed that we will take stock of the situation in October. We do not expect any price revision between now and October," Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan said in Madrid.
On June 4, when global crude prices were hovering around USD 135 a barrel, the government announced an increase in prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 3 per litre respectively to bail out state-run oil marketing companies from a financial mess.
International oil prices today climbed to a record USD 145 a barrel, and a fresh revision in retail prices could further fuel inflation that is already at over 13-year high of 11.42 per cent.
"It (import bill) will go up if the prices rise further," Srinivasan said.
In 2007-08, India's import bill was 67.988 billion dollars. This year, the import would be higher because Reliance Petroleum's export oriented 29 MT refinery is set for commissioning in August-September.
He said fuel consumption growth will be 5-6 per cent, but if the current pricing policies continue, wherein auto fuels are cheaper than industrial fuel like naphtha, the demand may go up because there is a tendency for power generators to switch to diesel instead of fuel oil and naphtha for electricity generation.
The only Way India can face the problem of ever rising prices of oil is to address the demand side- reduce consumption by a) providing public transportation on war footing, b) ministers setting example by switchibng to smaller cars and drastically reduce security cover of some ministers for whom it is just a status symbol; c) encourage alternative fuels for cooking and other purposes. There is more need than ever to build more buses and not burning them as is being done at regular intervals by so called 'protesters". Burning buses should be declared a capital offence and offenders should be publicly hanged. Big cars should be charged a higher road tax to discourage use. Our leaders should walk the talk instead of just preaching conservation of petrol
Good suggestion. Weekly five days working may be implemented in all sectors and travel on Saturdays/Sundays may be made to attract more fares.
What about an indefinite Bharat bandh? I hope CPM, Congress (ruling party? so what!), BJP, SP, BSP all will love it to show how much they love “Amm admi”. Let’s kill this ailing country and start from the scratch. I hope this new freedom fight will be better this time.
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