Image credit: financial mirror
For the first time in the history of Mumbai, the Gasoline prices have crossed the ₹100 mark which is among the costliest in the country and almost twice the price in New York.
This year the retail prices of Gasoline in the city are up 11% which made it reach ₹100.72 ($1.39) per litre, the data was shown by Indian Oil Corp on Monday. According to Bloomberg calculations which are based on figures from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the equivalent price in the US financial centre is $0.79.
As reported by the Times of India, PM Narendra Modi’s administration has raised the sales tax multiple times to comfort the worsening public finances which have caused the Indian fuel prices to soar in the past year. The taxes on gasoline and diesel have surged nearly six-fold since 2013 along with Levies now making up 60% of the retail price.
The finance director at Bharat Petroleum Corp, N Vijayagopal said “I pray for the prices to soften or the Government to reduce the taxes”, unless that happens “we have no choice but to increase the retail selling prices.”
Sales of both Gasoline and diesel in May were about a third lower than pre-virus levels in 2019 as large parts of the nation remained under common lockdowns in order to tackle the world’s worst coronavirus wave. The heavy increase in the taxes on the mentioned two fuels which account for more than half of the nations Oil consumption comes as the Covid-19 pandemic pummels demand in the world’s third-largest crude importer.