SHILLONG: Fuel prices in the country continued their upward movement on Saturday with petrol costing Rs 82 a liter in the city.
While petrol is being sold at Rs 82, diesel price in the city also shot up to Rs 74. As the meter calculating the amount is increasing, the display meter for litres poured is decreasing, making vehicles owner jittery.
A petrol pump attendant said on Saturday prices are increasing daily and in a day or two, petrol would cross Rs 83 per litre and the same will continue with diesel.
F Marbaniang, a two-wheeler owner, said the situation has reached such a point that petrol worth Rs 200 lasts only two to three days. As a distressed consumer, Marbaniang urged the state and the central governments to intervene “to save the common man” from the onslaught of increasing fuel prices.
When contacted, an official from the district administration said fuel prices are linked to the national market and the administration has limited role in fixing the prices.
It may be recalled that the state government has also refused to lower VAT unlike Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh where governments have cut down on their taxes to reduce absorb the shock of spiralling prices on consumers.
Earlier, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had said the VATs on petrol is lesser than other neighboring states and the state government was under financial pressure.
Now as petrol prices have increased, there are also murmurs among local taxi drivers to increase fares.
The matter was recently taken up with some BJP leaders in an informal discussion and they blamed the oil bonds which were allegedly taken by the Congress as the reason for the increase in the price of petroleum products.
Recently, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said the NDA government repaid over Rs 2 lakh crore, including Rs 70,000 crore in interest, which was taken as loan through oil bonds by the previous Congress government at the Centre.
Irked by the increasing petrol prices, the Congress party in Shillong had organised protests and called a nationwide strike earlier this month.
In Mumbai, petrol was priced at Rs 90.75 per litre, up from Rs 90.57 on Friday, data on the Indian Oil Corp’s website showed.
Petrol prices in other key cities of Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai were at Rs 83.40, Rs 85.21 and Rs 86.70 per litre, respectively — all at new record levels — higher than the previous levels of Rs 83.22, Rs 85.03 and Rs 86.51 per litre. The increase in transportation fuel prices comes amid surging crude oil prices. Currently, Brent crude oil is priced around $83 per barrel.
Sector experts also attribute the high domestic fuel prices to the high rate of excise duty across the country.
(With inputs from PTI)
