Wait, Watch and Face the Rise…

It’s just after a day the election results were announced in 5 states and even before the next government swore in here comes the announcement of hike in petrol prices. Yes, petrol is now hiked Rs.5 per liter on an average across the nation. In Trivandrum, petrol now costs Rs.67.13. Nine time hikes in last nine months.

Earlier the hike used to between Rs.1 and Rs.3 but now the minimum hike is Rs.5. This hike seems to affect each and every common man in the country whereas this brings a heart attach to people who are ready to receive their new petrol version cars.

Here is the breakdown of the taxes charged by the government in various forms. From the time it is refined to the time it reaches the consumers.

Excise duty : 14.35 rupees per liter
Customs duty : 7.5 percent
Sales tax or VAT : 20 percent. (PIB)

The total taxes amount to 45 percent of the final cost of the petrol. Price of crude oil in international market as on 16/05 is $98.58 per barrel. With approx.160 liters constitute a barrel, the price per litre is approx. 62 cents which in INR is 28 rupees.The cost of refining is hard to find out and looking at the difference it should be around 5.34 rupees per liter of petrol.Crude Distillation Unit (CDU), Vacuum Distillation Unit(VDU), Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCC), Hydro-cracker, Coker unit, Lube Unit are the several things which crude goes through to become petrol or diesel.

Considering all these taxes it comes around Rs.56 a litre where the state govt taxes apply on this cost. There are several things that are still not understood by many of the common man on the petrol and diesel prices. Everytime when a harthal or protest against the price rise is called, everyone suggests to rollback prices but only in the recent days, people start thinking in new dimensions on reducing the tax (close to 50%) on the petroleum products. This has to intensify and get across everyone’s thought and a protest in the right direction so that the govt seriously considers the reduction of taxes.

With these rising petorl cost what one can see in the future is rising of several Anna Hazare’s and that kind of protests. With all these being said, its better we start looking at other possibilities / alternatives like Car pooling, Walking, Cycling, usage of public transports, Drive Sharing etc.,

Let’s Wait, Watch and Face the story ahead of us…

Author: vsimbhu