KOLKATA: The fuel price rise wave has been the steepest this time and there is no sign of any relief for now.
In the last fortnight, the prices rose 12 times, leaving petrol costlier by Rs 8.78 and diesel by Rs 8.43 compared to its March 21 prices. In fact, compared to earlier waves of price-rise in September-November, the current waves of rises are on an accelerated pace — 17-22 paise a litre a day in the earlier wave and 32-84 paise per litre a day in the current wave. On Monday, petrol price stood at Rs 113.43 and diesel at Rs 98.21 in Kolkata.
Sharper the rise, harder is the blow on both economies both at macro and micro level, said experts. “Since both goods and passenger transportation runs on diesel, the price of every commodity is on a steady upswing with household budgets going haywire. Commute costs has also taken a leap. People are afraid to use personal vehicles but public transport also got crippled and unviable,” said economist
Aniruddha Dasgupta
.
Significantly, polls in five states brought the price rise to a grinding halt for four months after an excise cut, with petrol and diesel having been priced at RS 104.65 and Rs 89.78, respectively, till March 21.
“The climb is scary. Our family has been in the profession for 93 years and never have we seen such a steep rise ever. We are losing out on customers and revenues and irate motorists are being involved in frequent tiffs with our staff at the petrol pump over the price rise. But we can do little. We still earn only Rs 2.80 per litre of petrol as the rest goes into central and state taxes,” said
Kanchan Daw
, the proprietor of Jatadhari Daw & Grandsons on CR Avenue near Girish Park, one of the oldest fuel stations in India and possibly the first kerbside refuelling facility in the city.
Since the livelihood of nearly one-third of city’s employable youths are linked with mobility, higher fuel costs are eating into their earnings. “My job demands visiting scores of shops at different ends of the city everyday and hence I am thoroughly dependent on my bike for travelling. But such has been the price rise that there have been days when I parked my bike at some stores and took a Metro to travel from one part to other,” said
Md Jasimuddin
, a sales executive.
Meghmallar Das
, a telecom executive who also used to take his car to his office in Sector V post pandemic, has stopped driving and is opting for a carpool service. “Driving a car and spending a fortune on fuel is not worth it. Carpooling is a bit taxing but at least it saves me a few thousands now,” said Das, a Behala resident