Hyderabad: Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Friday, May 15, said the fuel price hike was unavoidable due to the global energy crisis and urged people to understand the circumstances behind the increase.
Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by Rs 3 per litre each on Friday—the first increase in more than four years—amid mounting losses faced by fuel retailers due to surging global crude oil prices following the West Asia conflict.
“The government led by PM Narendra Modi ji took this step under unavoidable circumstances. No domestic issue is responsible for this. Countries and people across the world have been affected by the energy crisis,” Union Minister of Coal and Mines told reporters here.
He also alleged that some parties were trying to incite people and spread misinformation about the issue.
India increased prices by only 3 pc while US experienced 40 pc hike: Kishan Reddy
Reddy appealed to the public to understand the inevitability of the price hike.
Although it was expected that the West Asia conflict would ease and fuel transportation would improve, crude oil shipments are still not reaching the country smoothly, he said.
In a post on X, Reddy claimed that due to the conflict, global fuel prices have witnessed a significant hike, with some countries even recording up to 90 per cent hikes. The US has also recorded a hike of about 40 per cent, he claimed.
Whereas under Prime Minister Modi, India limited the increase to just about three per cent despite Brent crude (global pricing benchmark) crossing 100 USD per barrel, he said.
On top of this, India’s public sector oil marketing companies absorbed massive losses for 76 days by facing a revenue shortfall of nearly Rs 1000 crores per day, Reddy said.
Reddy warns welfare schemes could suffer if govt revenue falls
Reddy said that implementing welfare programmes would become difficult if government revenue declined.
Referring to PM Modi’s leadership during the Covid-19 crisis, he said the Centre would continue to engage with the public and explain the situation during the current energy crisis, regardless of whether opposition parties cooperated.
Ponnam hits out at Centre for fuel price hike after elections
Meanwhile, Telangana Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar hit out at the Centre for increasing fuel prices just as elections to four state Assemblies concluded.
The hike comes just weeks after the Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry.
“As soon as the elections were over, even before the chief ministers could take their oaths, they hiked petrol prices, once again doing injustice to the people of the country, especially the people of Telangana,” he told reporters.
He said PM Modi’s speech during his visit to Hyderabad had also hinted at the price hike. “Three days ago, during his visit to Hyderabad, when he said to use less petrol and diesel, don’t buy gold, use less oil—that’s when the suspicion arose that they were up to some trick.”
(With inputs from PTI.)
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