T.S. Gautama
Earlier, petrol and diesel prices were adjusted every few months. The price of petrol and diesel will be increased only in the environment of rising crude oil prices. But since June 2017, petroleum price determination has been transferred to the hands of petroleum companies and the then petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced that from now on, there will be fluctuations in the price of petrol depending on the daily fluctuations in crude oil prices.
He said that through this announcement, the price of petrol and diesel will not be increased dramatically and will be increased little by little and when the price of crude oil will decrease, the price will decrease accordingly. He said that this would be beneficial to the consumers. Crude oil prices averaged $60 per barrel during that period. As there were no major changes in it, the increase in petrol and diesel prices did not affect people much.
But in the second term of Prime Minister Modi, even when the price of crude oil fell more than this, they continued to increase the price of petrol and diesel without reducing it. Similarly, even when the price of crude oil went to rock bottom during the Corona lockdown, the price of petrol and diesel did not decrease. Even after Corona, the price of crude oil has decreased, but the price of petrol and diesel has not decreased. Whenever we question the central government about this, it is not in our hands; They said the oil companies will decide. But when asked the oil companies, they said that they should ask the Ministry of Petroleum.
But, if we look at the truth in this, it seems that the Ministry of Petroleum has an indirect power in this regard. For example, whenever there are state elections in India, petrol and diesel prices remain unchanged for a few days or months. Last year in 2019, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim kept the prices unchanged a week before state elections.
In 2020, when the Bihar state election came in November, they kept the petrol price unchanged for a month and a half before that. Similarly, when elections came to West Bengal in 2021, they kept petrol prices unchanged for a month before the elections. When the five state elections were held in February and March last year, they kept prices unchanged for the 4 months before the elections.
Now they have kept the prices unchanged for six months even before Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections. Looking at all this, it can be seen that in these price fluctuations, the Ministry of Petroleum determines the price increase and decrease in favor of the government. Therefore, now that the two state elections are over, it is expected that there will be an increase in petrol and diesel prices. Bye.