Brace for bigger hike in fuel prices, say experts

With public sector undertaking oil marketing companies hiking the prices of fuel from 6 a.m. Tuesday, industry experts say that consumers should brace themselves for a total hike of around ₹15 per litre, which will be over a period of time.  “They will not do it overnight but are expected to do so over the next couple of weeks. Today’s increase, after a long hiatus of over 120 days, was around 77 paise per litre. This is just the first day. Even though the country has struck a deal for Russian crude at cheaper prices, the OMCs have borne the brunt of very high crude prices all these months. We cannot expect them to continue to do the same for longer,” the expert said.  Meanwhile, in order to help motorists, industry sources opine that the Central government should roll back some of the excise it has levied over the years. Similarly, the Tamil Nadu government too should not collect goods and services tax (GST) on the increased price. “It can continue to collect GST at the old rate,” a source said.  R. Narayanan, a resident of Mylapore said that at a time when the earning classes were not getting any increase in their salary and were continuing to work with pay cuts, such a hike would lead to extraordinary levels of suffering. “Already prices of cooking oil and pulses have gone up. With work from home options being withdrawn, commuting to and from offices too would become costlier,” he pointed out.  Similarly, domestic cooking gas prices too have been hiked by the oil companies by ₹50 per cylinder. However, the price of commercial cylinders has been brought down by ₹8 each. This is due to a decrease in distributor commission, explained an industry source. Consumers said that along with a small tip, they had to pay ₹1,000 per cylinder. The subsidy remains ₹24.50, which is an insignificant amount considering the price of the LPG cylinder, added Mothi Chandrika, a resident of Perungudi.