Petrol, diesel prices at record highs; from bus drivers to milk vendors, see how fuel rates have affected all

For the past few months, fuel prices have been soaring high. Also, it is no secret that the Modi government kept petrol and diesel prices under check in the run-up to the Karnataka assembly elections, but the prices reached an all-time high on Monday. Petrol was sold at Rs 76.24 per litre in Delhi, Rs 84.07 per litre in Mumbai, Rs 79.13 in Chennai and Rs 78.91in Kolkata. While diesel was sold at Rs 67.82 per litre, Rs 70.37 per litre, Rs 72.21 per litre and Rs 71.59 per litre respectively. No sooner was the fuel price hike declared, than school bus drivers’ union, vegetable vendors, milk suppliers, taxi unions, auto-rickshaw drivers, restaurants decided to make it clear that they too would hike prices of their services to make ends meet.

The hike in petroleum products is across the country. However, among the four metropolitan cities, Mumbai is the most expensive.

In a span of four months, petrol prices went up by Rs 7 per litre, while diesel prices shot up by Rs 10 per litre. The Monday’s revision in fuel prices marked the eight consecutive increase in petrol and diesel prices across the country.

Bearing in mind, the rise in diesel prices, private bus operators have planned to increase fares by 25-30 per cent. This would ideally mean that your Mumbai-Goa trip in an AC bus, that ranges between Rs 500 to Rs 1200, would now be anywhere between Rs 650 to Rs 1500. Even the fee of school buses is expected to go up in the range of 10-13 per cent due to the surge in fuel prices.

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Traders at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) said that in the past three years, there has been constant increase in transportation charges of moving goods. Shankar Pingle, an APMC trader said, “The transportation cost has gone up by 10 per cent in the past three years but the profit ratio has not gone up even by half.”

India imports more than 80 per cent of its annual oil requirement.

Source: DNA India