Petrol and diesel prices in Chandigarh have gone up by Rs 5.79 and Rs. 4.67 per litre in the last 9 days with the Union Territory administration announcing a hike in VAT on fuel by five per cent last Wednesday.
Even as crude oil rates have softened to multi-year lows, the price of petrol and diesel in India have touched to record high levels. State owned oil companies resumed the daily revision of fuel prices on June 7 following an 82-day-long break during lockdown because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The spike of fuel prices in India can be attributed to the excise duty hike of record Rs 10 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 per litre on diesel last month. A revenue-starved Central government hiked the excise duty to regain the losses incurred due to fall in prices and the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
As demand is steadily going up for both petrol and diesel with lockdown restrictions being eased across the country, oil retailers are passing on the impact of last month’s excise duty hike on consumers.
Oil is one of the major sources of revenue and the state governments are desperately tapping into this source to balance out the some of the hit they’ve taken from the fall in demand of petrol and diesel and the lockdown.
Sources, quoted by news agency IANS, have said that the rise in fuel price will likely continue for another week or 10 days as global crude prices are firming up with a pick up in demand following opening up of economies across the globe post COVID-19 related lockdown.
The Congress has demanded that the recent hike in excise duty should be rolled back and petroleum goods be brought under the ambit of goods and services tax (GST).
