Gaurav Gupta
It seems that no one among those steering the nation are ready to do something substantial to contain the rising inflation as things have compounded so much that the backbone of the common man has been broken to pieces and no treatment is in sight.“As the country was already reeling under financial stress due to several factors impacting economy, the pandemic corona has made things worse and now the situation has come where no one in the country can predict the future as far as financial standing is concerned because inflation has become out of control with all the stakeholders feeling the pinch and no one getting the respite. The corona effect has badly hampered the businesses in the country and reviving them is the biggest challenge before the Government which right now is finding it very hard to tread as if it has reached a dead end. Sadly the government has given-up and become numb towards the misery which the common man is facing due to rising prices of petroleum products, edible oils and the related services which are essential for the survival and sustenance of the society. The inflation right now is 6.3 and is continuously surging to surmount new heights breaking all the previous records. The figures released by the FCS&CA Department show that Mustard oil, Vanaspati Ghee, and petroleum products have seen an unprecedented rise of 25 per cent which is gigantic especially when the people are facing financial crunch due to corona impact. The situation is comparable to China, US, Brazil, Russia and UK as the inflation is also colossal out there but somehow China and Russia have controlled the same to a great extent. The inflation depends on various factors with a direct relation between demand and cost of products.
The RBI is the main stakeholder apart from the Government to contain the surge in inflation but it seems that all the efforts are proving futile and no remedy in sight as the government is also mum over the issue and rather is imposing taxes as never before especially in the case of fuel regime. If we talk about crude oil, in the last five years, the cost of a crude oil barrel was somewhere near 50 dollar per barrel. Due to Covid outbreak in India, vehicular movement came to a standstill and as a result, the cost of crude oil plummeted to 17 dollar per barrel. Despite claiming to fix the price of petroleum products on international market rates on a daily basis, the government instead of reducing the cost of petroleum products, imposed a whopping 100 per cent Excise duty on petrol and 70 per cent on diesel thus making their rates touch new heights in many cities of the country. The Government which is short of words over highest ever taxes on petroleum products is earning hefty amount as profit but on the other hand the common man which has experienced the worst time of his life due to corona in the last nearly two years has been subjected to miserable life by this ruthless tax regime on petrol and diesel which has impacted severely the prices of essential commodities. It was said that the excise duty was raised on fuel to cater to the needs of people facing brunt of COVID pandemic and Government has to spend much on free vaccination and the free ration to over 80 crore poor people but now when the situation is restored to normal extracting such a huge amount as tax on fuels is not justified at all. The Government being the sole caretaker of the masses especially the downtrodden should come out of deep slumber and must take proactive steps in bailing out the inflation ridden population. It could start with lessening the load of taxes especially on petroleum products and by bringing electric vehicle technology by switching over to the same as soon as possible. The EV technology will bring out the country from fuel dependency and subsequently the prices of the essential commodities will settle down at a much comfortable level making the life of a common man much better and worth living or else days are not far when the starvation will knock the doors of the people and the main culprit will be the excessive tax imposed on fuel and hunger of the people. There is no dearth of intellectuals in the Government and there is dire need that they should be engaged to provide a sigh of relief to the people from the mounting inflation which has devastated the budgets of kitchens of people especially those belonging to the lower middle class and the poor segments of the society. The issue is of vital importance and the Government should act fast in this direction because every day lost can have adverse effects on the economy and can add to the woes of the people. What is the fun of the people centric Government sitting at the helm when the people are facing misery on account of endless and arbitrary rise in taxes on fuel and snowballing inflation with relative increase in the prices of essential commodities.“
(The author is Secretary General CCI Jammu)
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