Fuel price hike: From farm to fork, budgets will suffer with petrol, diesel getting costlier by the day

With petrol and diesel prices shooting up on Monday across metros, the hike is now expected to burn a hole in the common man’s pocket. Petrol prices in Delhi touched a near-five year high of Rs 73.83 a litre on Monday while the price of diesel hit a fresh record in the national capital, supported by the recent surge in global crude oil prices, according to  Indian Oil data. In Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, prices hit multi-year highs at Rs 81.69 per litre, Rs 76.54 and Rs 76.59 respectively. In Delhi, diesel, which fuels Indian industry, was priced at Rs 64.69 a litre on Monday. In Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, diesel prices were at Rs 68.89, Rs 67.38 and Rs 68.24 respectively. [caption id=“attachment_4316343” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The surge in fuel prices and its cascading effects will weigh on budgets, and the salaried. Farmers and transporters, for instance, will be compelled to hike prices to recover costs, and their moves could throw household budgets out of gear for a while. The government and the central bank will be monitoring this situation closely, for higher fuel prices could drive wholesale and retail price inflation to higher levels. “Farmers use tractors, ploughing machines and water pumps that are diesel dependant. This shoots up their operational costs. The transport costs are added on to the vegetable produce by the traders and transporters. But the operational costs of the farmer are not factored into the selling price of the vegetable,” GV Ramanjaneyulu, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express. People are already blaming the Narendra Modi regime, and are demanding that the government puts together a plan to tackle the problem of rising fuel prices, according to the Business Standard. For starters, people want the government to decrease the excise duty on fuel, as the move could, to some extent, protect the aam aadmi from rising crude oil prices. Earlier in the year, the oil ministry had sought a reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel to cushion the impact of rising international oil rates, but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget presented on 1 February, ignored that request. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, on Sunday, reportedly took a swipe at the government for ’not doing anything’ to control the surge in the price of petrol and diesel. She tweeted:

Diesel/petrol prices are rising and rising and rising. People are suffering. Kitchens are burning. Government is only talking

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) April 1, 2018

State-owned oil firms revise fuel prices daily, taking their cues from global crude oil price fluctuations.