Fear of creating discrepancies with different fuel prices
State-owned oil marketing companies have decided to increase the price of diesel by Rs 5 per liter, keeping retail prices unchanged for wholesale consumers. This is expected to create huge discrepancies in the fuel market. After this, questions will also arise about price reform. Last week, three state-owned companies, Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL, which account for 50 per cent of fuel sales, hiked fuel prices for wholesale consumers such as public transport buses, industries, airports, malls and Indian Railways. In Mumbai, the price of diesel for wholesale consumers has gone up to Rs 19.05 per liter while retail consumers are getting petrol at Rs 2.15 per liter at the pump. In Delhi, the prices are Rs 115 and Rs 2.5 per liter respectively. Of course, the Russia-Ukraine war caused a sharp rise in crude oil prices and so this rise was also long overdue. Doubling the rate for diesel is a retaliatory measure and is detrimental for a number of reasons. Prices at petrol pumps have long been s...