Yesterday came out the news that the petrol prices in India will be deregulated and as a result the petrol prices in India will rise by 3.5/-. No one is happy about this fuel price hike and the media has gone mad about this. Everyone is thinking about themselves but no one is thinking about the country or the global advantage of this.
We may have to suffer the petrol price hike by paying a few extra Rs. per litre, but what we should consider is now the petrol price will be moving in tandem with the global prices. So, if the crude oil price increases (which is around 75 per bbl right now), the petrol price in India will increase as well. This may sound like more bad news, but trust me it isn't. By deregulating the petrol prices, govt has given us full control over fuel price. What we need to consider is the supply demand ratio which decides the upward/downward movement of crude oil price. If the demand for crude goes down, the crude oil price will go down. With India being the 5th largest consumer of crude oil, if we put our efforts in the right direction, we can reduce the global demand for crude oil, thereby reducing the crude oil price.
If we go by statistics, the oil consumption of India is approx. 2,722,000 bbl/day. Now that's a huge number. If we take this hike seriously and try our best to reduce the fuel consumption, we can make a very big difference. So, try to use as much of public transport, use bicycles whenever possible (See how China uses bicycles). If we don't act to this petrol price hike, and keep on the same old attitude, then there is really no point in deregulating the oil prices.
So instead of going on a strike for the fuel price hike, now is the time for us to wake up and act accordingly.
