The Politiconomics of Petrol Pricing in India

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The Politiconomics of Petrol pricing in India Of the various sensitive issues that can make or break a government in India, petrol pricing is one. As on 10 Dec ’12, petrol price in India is R72.3 (Average price of Metros). If we take Delhi as a base, it has fluctuated 30 times over the past 4 years causing an increase by 47%.1 On May 23, 2012 petrol saw its steepest hike ever- by R7.54 leading to nationwide protests by the opposition and the general public. Protesters in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Jammu and Kerala burnt effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, set motorcycles on fire and held placards reading "Bring down petrol prices".2 Impact on Inflation Petrol prices account for 1.09% of overall WPI (Wholesale Price Index). Implying that a 11.5% increase (due to the hike of R7.54 recently) increases the inflation by 13-15 bps.3 Inflation, as we know, reduces the purchasing power of the Rupee and effectively makes people poorer. In a country where 77 per cent of the population spend 60-80 per cent of their meager R600 monthly income on food (according to the report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector), the price of petrol is out of reach of the poorer majority who cannot afford the costs of private transport. Impact on Transportation There are 10 crore two wheelers and 2 crore cars, of which 60%, i.e. 1.2 crore cars run on petrol, affecting about 11.2 crore vehicles in all.4 5 6 7 8 The population affected would be even higher if we assume each vehicle is used by a family of four on average. Causes To understand the cause of the hike, let us first understand price breakup of petrol. In any industry, the selling price of a product is determined by adding a profit margin to the cost of production. However, the oil industry in India is unique, in that, the actual cost of production has no

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