Petroleum and Gas Price Hike in Chennai

Govt. of India announced the hike in petrol price on 4th June 2008, following the soaring price of crude oil in the international market. The hike announced has made the petrol and diesel costlier by Rs.5.00 and Rs.3.00 respectively. As usual many newspapers and politicians started debating the components of the petrol price and finally Central Govt. recommended the state governments to reduce the sales tax to reduce the burden on the common man.

The history of petrol price hike in Chennai shows an absolute increase of 77.36% in the last 6 years (Rs.31.05 in 2002 and 57.07 in 2008). The historic price data as available on the Indian Oil website gives the following information.

Last 5 years Petrol Price change in Chennai, India

Source: Indian Oil Website.

LPG cylinders used for cooking are also not spared. The price of cylinders are hiked by about Rs.50/- to cost Rs.339.60 in Chennai which is the lowest price tag among four metros, as it appears on the IOC website. In January 2004 it was Rs.248.55 which has seen a hike of 33.63% in the last 4 years.

It is too obvious for the world community that we should do away with petroleum products and and find ways to use alternate sources of energy and fuel to replace petroleum. But none of the nations give priority to this except for their ambitious talks during such price surge in international market. Developed nations should keep their nuclear agenda away and take the issue of replacing petroleum on top priority to invent a renewable source of energy.