A Rs 8 per litre cut in excise duty on petrol and Rs 6 a litre on diesel to avoid increase in fuel prices is a much sought after decision of the government as people were facing lot of hardships due to uncontrolled rise in petrol and diesel prices. The cut in price will also help in controlling the prices of essential commodities to a large extent as the common man’s kitchen budget has been disturbed due to uncontrolled inflation. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced this benevolent move by the government which will help the masses to some extent. Government was facing mounting pressure over the uncontrolled surge in fuel prices which are directly linked with the international price of crude oil. Not only this, the government has also decided to give Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy to Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries for 12 cylinders in a year to help ease some of the burden arising from cooking gas rates rising to record levels. The unprecedented rise in fuel costs has badly affected food and other necessary items like packaged milk, edible oil and wheat, among others, and has thrown household budgets out of order. The problem in India is that once prices of essential commodities go up, they seldom revert and for sure the higher prices of vegetables, fruits, pulses, wheat flour, etc will become the new benchmark with no chance of cost cutting. Of course the cut in taxes will give a sigh of relief to the people confronting uncontrolled price rise but this move will cost dearly to government which is already under stress due to several factors and is struggling to run the affairs of the country. The decision to stabilize the fuel prices shows that the government is also aware about the people’s hardship and wanted to give relief but the compulsions which are obvious were stopping it to take the benevolent decision earlier. Now, when the government has finally paid heed to people’s plight and given respite in terms of cutting the taxes, hopefully there will be a relief for some time with inflation witnessing a dip for some time.
