NEW DELHI : There is no respite from mounting burden on common man, after Centre hiked the cost of petrol and diesel for the eight consecutive day on Sunday.
Petrol was upped by 62 paise and diesel by 60 paise last night With this, petrol price in Thiruvananthapuram will now cost Rs 76.82 and diesel Rs 70.91. Oil marketing companies claim increase crude prices in the international market for the unrestrained spike beginning 7th June. That hoax is hard to mask, given that oil prices that stood at 42 dollar in global markets had fallen to 38 dollars on June 12.
On May 5, when crude oil prices in international markets slid to 20 dollar, the Centre refused to slash prices here. In fact, to prevent the discounted rates from benefiting the public, it upped the excise duty and road cess thereof, which saw diesel costs rise by Rs 13 and Petrol by Rs 14. Later on 14 March, the centre upped petrol and diesel prices by 3 rupees each. These two hikes augmented centre’s revenue by 1 lakh crore. Incidentally, the income from special additional excise duties need not be shared with states.
After Modi govt came to power in 2014, duties levied on petrol and diesel stood at Rs 9.48 and Rs 3.56. And now, the figures stand at whopping Rs 32.98 and Rs 31.83 respectively. Excise duty was hiked 10 times between 201-17. That gave a neat Rs 10 lakh crore in added income to the government and bloated profits for Reliance, Essar and Shell India.
