Common Man Feels the Pinch as Fuel Prices Continue to Rise Unabated

Bhubaneswar: The continuous increase in petroleum prices has started to affect the common man’s pocket as well as small and big traders. While the pandemic hit society is slowly limping back to normalcy, the fuel price hike has come as a big shock to the people. The Oil Marketing Companies have raised the prices of petrol and diesel continuously in the last fifteen days and the pump prices have risen by more than ten percent. This has led to a negative impact on the people’s budget and the inflation has just gone out of control.

In Odisha, the prices of Petrol and Diesel have risen by almost Rs 10 per liter in the last fourteen days. Its impact has been on all including common man to small time businesses and big companies. The trickle down impact of the fuel price rise can be clearly seen on the prices of food products and essential services. The prices of vegetables have risen by more than 25 percent in the last one month. The worst affected are the street vendors and small time eateries that are impacted by high raw materials along with increase LPG prices. The LPG prices too saw a sharp increase in the last one month.

The transport sector seems to be not in a position to survive as diesel prices have skyrocketed. Though there is an increase is bus fares, other expenses have also increase eating into the expenses. For Abhiram Nayak, who owns a diesel auto to provide sharing auto services, the price hike has deeply impacted his livelihood. Earlier he used to earn about Rs 500 to Rs 600 per day, but due to increase in diesel prices and other items the profits have plummeted drastically. Adding to that, the increased prices of food items and essential services have made it difficult for him to manage his household budget. He is thinking of dropping his only child out from the school due to the financial difficulties.
This is not the only story of impact of fuel price hike on common man. Siba Ranjan Diagal, a native of Kandhamal district has a similar story. He works as a driver for a tour operator. The operator is thinking shutting down the business due to losses. For Digal, managing the daily affairs of his family will be very difficult if he is retrenched.

Likewise, for Md Salim, who owns a fast food joint in Cuttack, increasing the prices of food items is the only way out He says, along with raw materials, the price of cooking oil and LPG has also risen. While he has already increased the prices of fast food by about 25 percent, he says, if the trend continues, he has to shut his shop. People are buying less food products due to high prices. He says, this is the month of Ramadan. He thought he could get some handsome profits during the month, but the inflation has spoiled all his plans. Getting over the difficulties of the pandemic has become more tedious.

The fact that crude oil prices in the international markets have cooled down from the highs of last month does not make sense in India as the Government controlled fuel companies are raising the retail prices unabated. While international crude oil price peaked a month ago due to Ukraine issue, the same has cooled doen and now the rate of Crude il has came down to about $100 per barrel. But in India, much to the astonishment of many, the retail prices are being raised everyday.