Steep hike in petrol prices after Karnataka elections!

The increasing rise in the international price of crude reaching 80 USD per dollar is bound to affect the Indian economy and simultaneously rise in inflation. It is said that one of the significant reasons for this enhancement is due to the American stand towards the Iranian Nucleur policy threatening sanctions and reversing the stand taken by his predeccesor Barak Obama. However China and India, the largest oil importers from Iran and Saudi Arab have not supported the US stand with regard to Iran and would continue to import crude oil from the Islamic nation keeping in view India’s dire need for oil.

But if we look at the domestic front, it’s an unambiguous fact that when the government of BJP led NDA came to power at the centre, the international crude price that was over 115 USD per barrel has steadily come down to 30 n 35 USD per barrel but there had been consistent rise in the prices of the petro products like LPG, Petrol and Diesal and if we believe in the statement of the former finance minister of India, Yashwant Sinha, the prices of Petroleum products were raised nine times during the last four years under the current regime.

It may be recalled that when Dr. Manmohan Singh was the Prime minister prior to the BJP led NDA assuming power at the centre, the per litre petrol price was Rs 71 and then the international crude oil was 110 or 115 USD per barrel but today the international crude price is 80 dollars per barrel and the prce of petrol per barrel is more than that i.e. over 80 rupees, despite the fact that the international crude price is 35 US dollar less per barrel that what it was during the Congress regime.

This means that when the crude price was 30 to 35 USD per barrel till the current rate of 80 USD the price rise of Diesal, Petrol and LPG had been consistently being enhanced as according to Yashwant Sinha, the strongest critic of the the BJP led NDA and former BJPite, the saffron party n its government have been incessantly burdening the people by way of imposing heavy taxes on petro products to cover its national fiscal deficit but not thinking of providing relief to the countrymen.

In an exclusive interview given to the senior anchor and journalist Karan Thaper of The Wire, Prime minister Narendra Modi’s bete noire who was till a few months back in BJP and minister for Finance and external affairs in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government, Yashwant Sinha blamed the PM of incurring 4 thousand crores in his publicity from the public exchequer, in the name of various achievements but the ground reality reflects that more of the publicity had been done for personal image building than actually acknowledging concrete achievements on various fronts.

He catagorically said that burdening people of the country by applying maximum tax on petro products nine times during the BJP NDA rule is like betraying the peoples’ trust who’d voted the government of the saffron party with a resounding majority at the centre as well as 21 states of the country.

Had the government been caring for the people of the country it could have conveniently withdrawn heavy taxes on petro products thus easing the inflationery pressures on the essential commodities whose prices are skyrocketting these days.

It may be recalled that the rise in prices of petrol, diesal and consumer gas leads to the enhancement in the rates and tarrif of transport further adding in the increase in the inflation of food products, steel, building material, vegetables, food grains and literally everything.

There have been constant demand from the trading community and the people of the country to bring Petroleum products under the jurisdiction of GST so that its prices could be lowered and people of the country relieved of the burden of high petro products’ prices but all in vain.

After the demonetisation, the way the government and those at the helm had assured the electorates of the country that not only would the financial coffers of the state exchequer would be over filled with unearthed black money but the countrymen would also be getting tremendous employment, and cheaper goods whether they are eatables, vegetables, food grains or education but on the contrary unfortunately lakhs of small medium businesses were shut down but hundreds of thousands of peoole of the lower strata of the society and those hailing from.the middle and lower middle class were contrained to loose their jobs, skilled as well as unskilled.

The government has received over 14 lakh 70 thousand crores rupees as recovery in banks but the prices of essential commodities, petro products are still touching skies and employment opportunities are negligible with people of the lowest strata of the society groaning in pain for want of concessions in every sector, may it be on employment front, price rise front, cheaper education front, standard of living front, business front, housing front, agricultural, the health front or women safety front. The agrarian crisis and farmers suicides are still on the rise with little or no ray of hope for credible relief in the offing. Whats your take friend?