Why is Modi not ready to reduce the petrol price in India in 2018?

Mayank Agrawal
Mayank Agrawal, studied at University College of Engineering, Kota
Answered yesterday
The hot topic in the town is increased prices of Petrol & Diesel.⛽

While I am writing this today,on 9th Sep 2018, a litre of petrol now costs Rs. 80.50 in New Delhi, Rs. 83.39 in Kolkata, Rs. 87.89 in Mumbai, and Rs. 83.66 in Chennai, according to IOC's website. A litre of diesel costs Rs. 72.61 in New Delhi - the highest ever. In Kolkata, diesel is priced at Rs. 75.46/ litre, in Mumbai Rs. 77.09/ litre, and Rs. 76.75/ litre in Chennai.

Some are cursing the Govt. and saying that same people protested against rising prices when they were in opposition and during UPA there was not too much price hike even when crude oil prices increased exponentially.

Correct folks!! but what were the conditions that make both protest two completely different scenario..here we do mistake in checking it.

There are some points which are to be considered before starting this blame game.

Blame no.1: Price hike was not as much by UPA even if the Global Oil prices were rising.

Fact: Manmohan Singh lead UPA Govt. wanted to have lesser impact of rising crude oil prices on common people so they did two things:

(a) Raised almost 1.44 lakh crore rupees in terms Oil bonds to majorly bypass the impact of increasing crude oil prices and to lower the losses of oil companies (b) modest increase of 3-5 Rs in Petrol/Diesel prices.

Even ex PM Manmohan Singh said that they are not doing right thing as someone has to repay the bonds.This is what PM Dr. Manmohan Singh said in his address to the nation on Jun 4, 2008.

"My Fellow Citizens,

I know that the price increases we have had to announce today will not be popular, even though they are only modest. You must remember that the Government is bearing the burden of issuing oil bonds. Our oil companies are making a large sacrifice and are under severe stress.

However, I would like the nation to remember that issuing bonds and loading deficits on oil companies is not a permanent solution to this problem. We are only passing on our burden to our children who will have to repay this debt. Cutting down on the returns of our oil companies will choke a sector vital for the growth of the economy. We need more corrective measures in future on many fronts. In the long term, our country must have a sound strategy for energy security."

Link:

Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

May be they issued these oil bonds as as burden on the country as they knew that they are not going to pay this enromous amount as they were not going to re-elected being the most corrupted Govt, the country has ever seen.

Same money has been repaid by PM Narendra Modi led NDA Govt along with interest of 70K Crore that too from the foreign reserves of this Govt. During NDA one year central excise collection is almost 2-3 lakh crore so almost an year tax collection has been used for repayment of oil bonds. The strict spending and zero corruption of Modi government enabled this.

link:

Govt repaid over Rs 2 lakh cr on account of oil bonds taken: Pradhan

Blame no.2: Govt. didn't passed benefit of reduced crude oil prices to consumers instead it increased Central Excise & State VAT.

Fact: Crude Oil prices fell considerably after 2014 but Govt. didn't passed this benefit to common people as it wanted to inculcate the habit of financial discipline in economy.

Govt. used additional tax collection from Cebtral Excise wisely to fuel it's Capital intensive projects to Sagarmala (Port), Bharatmala (Roads) and to boost Waterways and Airport connectivity.

Along with this various social-securiy schemes were running be it PMJJY, PMSBY, Ujjwala Yojana (Free LPG connection to poor families) which already marked 5 Cr beneficiary, Ujala (LED distribution) which marked almost 30 Cr LED bulbs (upto 9th September 2018) distributed resulted in savings of 16000 Cr savings and reduced peak load demand, Jan-dhan account for financial inclusion of every household, PM Jan-Aushadi Kendra where one can purchase generic medicine instead of branded high value medicines and last but not the least 'AysushMaan Bharat' which will be milstone in healthcare as it will provide Medi-claim facility up to 5 lakhs for 50 Cr people of poor households.

So ultimately the benefit of reduced crude oil prices passed to the person who is standing in the last line...the real execution of 'Antyodaya Concept' by Pandit Deen dayal Upadhyaya.

Blame no.3: Same people who were protesting earlier for increased oil prices are now in Govt and not saying anything.. hypocrisy??

Fact: When I say that this Govt. is inculcating financial discipline in the ecomomy, there are reasons.

While there is too much investment by the Govt in new Capital intensive and social security schemes along with running old schemes like MANREGA and food security scheme which act as a big subsidy based schemes, India Current Account Deficit (CAD) has decreased instead of increasing. Currently CAD is in the range of 2-3% of GDP during NDA compared to nearly 4-5% of GDP during UPA.

Isn't it a good thing? Here Govt. shown that how to use favorable situations for benefit of the country.

UPA OR NDA: Who's better for the economy? - Times of India

UPA govt were having high deficit, unpaid oil bonds, gulped over 20 Lakh crore rupees in Scams ( Coal Scam was itself around 10 lakh crore) and they doomed the economy, this is how it is different from the protest of opposition at that time.

All things are in India's favour be it inflation, FDI, Forex reserves, GDP as on today except falling Rupee which is due to US-China trade war and Increasing Crude Oil prices, over which Govt should take some serious actions.

Do you want a Govt which gives you subsidies in terms of freebies and at the backdoor it takes away all the benefits in terms of increased financial burden of fiscal deficit and ultimately putting interest burden on Indian govt to repay it ? This is the real question.

Is it your money going to scams like previous one?, NO, it is returning to the society ultimately!!

This Govt is doing what it right for the country and not for appeasing people for vote bank politics. As 2019 will come near people will try their best to defame the good work by false allegations. Don't be a fool, use your rationality, analyse the conditions before accepting the allegations as it is.