Moradabad/Hyderabad/Kanpur, May 15 (ANI): The sudden declaration of a hike in petrol prices has angered people across India, as this is the seventh time in 11 months that petrol prices have gone up and are set to upset household budgets.
In the biggest-ever price increase of the fuel, state-owned oil companies hiked petrol price by Rs. 5 per litre with effect from Saturday midnight.
The steep hike in petrol price is likely to be followed by a Rs. 4 per litre increase in diesel rates and Rs. 20-25 per cylinder increase in domestic LPG price later this month.
According to reports, petrol in Delhi will cost Rs. 63.37 per litre at Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) outlets from today as against Rs. 58.37 a litre.
Alarmed by the news, vehicle owners rushed to fuel stations in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad city to buy petrol before the price shot up.
"The price of petrol has risen by Rs. 5 per litre. As soon as we saw this in the news, we came to the petrol pumps to get our tank of our vehicles filled with petrol and this is a failure of the government," said Ramesh Sharma, a resident of Moradabad.
"This is a combined conspiracy of the government and the oil companies that the price of petrol is raising continuously. This will lead to price rise and the poor people will suffer the most," he added.
The situation was similar in Andhra Pradesh's Hyderabad city, where long queues of vehicles were spotted outside various fuel stations.
Motorists said the price hike would impact the cost of essential commodities further and in turn affect the common man.
"When we look at very ordinary people, who earn 100 to 150 Rs. a day and obviously even though they don't consume petrol directly, but obviously it affects. Because the price is going to go up very soon, so it affects adversely," said Shiva, a local.
"So, it's a very bad thing, it's not acceptable first of all and that too 5 Rs. per litre is very huge. So, the government should do something to at least reduce the percentage of hike," he added.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas RPN Singh said the government is already providing subsidies on diesel, kerosene oil and petrol, so it becomes necessary for the government to raise the price.
"If anybody says that subsidy is not given, then I would like to tell that the government is giving 16 Rs. subsidy on diesel, 350 Rs. subsidy on a gas cylinder, more than 20 Rs. of subsidy is being given on kerosene oil. Petrol has been deregulated still you are being given 7 Rs. of subsidy on petrol," said Singh.
"If such subsidies are given and the price of crude remains the same, then in times to come, the government will have to give 1,80,000 crore of subsidy, if the prices are not risen. So, if the price is not raised, then you can imagine what will happen," he added. (ANI)
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