Petroling the responsibility

Indian govt. has been pretty consistent in keeping the tone of its approach towards public same for both years 2010 & 2011. It ended calendar year 2010 with petrol rise of ~2.57 and followed it up with similar rise of ~2.54 .Whether valid justified or necessary are the debates which will continue for a long period to come and parties will keep on making hue and cry about the same.
But the point which I am trying to make is a bit weird and is bound to raise eye brows.Let us think for few moments if fuel prices are not hiked and govt. keeps on giving subsidy by absorbing the losses of the PSUs, what can happen.
1) Govt. pays those losses through tax payers money or giving PSUs credit letters
2) Pvt. players are driven out of business as they cannot sustain such losses and don’t get subsidy too. Loss of employment for those in the sector.
3) The user is unaware of real value of the commodity.
All three of these have been utilized by various elements in various forms for their personal interests.
This system really needed a revamp which is duly justified as if the fuel prices are kept free floating then the tangible benefits which I are as follows :
1) User is aware of the price and hence he can think for optimizing and prioritizing his usage.
2) Differential in price is directly collected from the user and hence tax payers actual money with govt. can be utilized for some genuine planned purpose.
3) It will force parents and seniors in society to enforce a culture of responsibility among youth who drive automobiles at their will and at somebody else cost.
The all above will directly or indirectly promote public transport usage, which has been a real lag in Indian due to several reasons. This will again put pressure back on the Govt. to improve infrastructure/transport system to cope up with demand. Time required & corruption possibilites are other issues to be tackeled here but we will have a solution.
I understand this is a bit rave idea but if you think for some time they really start making sense, especially last point.
Yes, no doubt there are other ways to control and moderate the fuel price as it will ultimately help in inflation rate to climb. Current breakage of fuel price is
If the price of petrol stands at Rs 58.90, the break up of cost as calculated by the Indian Government is as follows:
• Basic Price: Rs 28.93
• Education Tax: Rs 0.43
• Dealer commission: Rs 1.05
• Excise duty: Rs 14.35
• VAT: Rs 5.5
• Petrol Custom: Rs 1.54
• Crude Oil Custom duty: Rs 1.1
• Transportation Charge: Rs 6.00
• Total price: Rs 58.90
Ref :: http://blog.mapsofindia.com/2011/01/18/yet-another-petrol-price-hike-for-india/
Certainly a better way needs to be found but running away or hiding is not what we are looking for.

एक बूंद की किमत

Petrol prices to be deregulated completely is the new hot gossip for Indian politics or parties.
In India bollywood gossips get a tough competitions from political gossips which are wrapped under pseudo name of concern towards the poor.
Deregulation of petrol will add an additional burden of 3.50 Rs (I will stick to this sign till our currency gets a new official logo).
After following this deregulation issue for a couple of days a thought came to my mind.
To keep petrol (I am considering petrol only as its most discussed and hyped issue of all out of regulated goods) regulated Gvt of India has to pay a hefty amount to the Oil companies in cash or in the form of bonds.
Whatever may be the cribbing reasons provided by various parties to keep this regulation going on but this is a part of business where the difference has to be settled.
Why Govt should pay for the rash unnecessary utilization of vehicles by people when use of petrol/ vehicle can be avoided.
If this bonds/ cash is available to Govt for using for direct development wont it will be more worth and benefiting to common man, for whom all cry is taking place.

Increase in cost will make us realize importance of petiole which will automatically curb the utilization to optimal level in sincere citizen of India. This will be an indirect help to reducing carbon footprints of a nation which has considerably lower carbon footprints thanks to its population (data which I got is based on per capita basis). It will make parents ask wards about consumption of fuel, and so will bring accountability to some extent.
I agree if petrol prices goes up then prices of dependent services like transport, foods will also go up. But they will reach a realistic value after this hike which can be addressed in a proper way then.This bubble of cushion has to burst at some moment the sooner the better is what I feel.
Let us see how our UPA (Under Pressure Alliance) is able to push through the proposal.
Open for views and clarification if some assumptions are wrong

Ref for Oil prices :
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/end-petrol-subsidy-says-ongc/382824/http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Pvt-oil-firms-seek-freeing-of-fuel-prices/546998/


Ref for Carbon foot prints :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita