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Petrol crosses Rs 109 in Bhopal and Indore, diesel nears Rs 99 after another hike

By PTI

Bhopal/Indore, July 10: Petrol prices in Bhopal and Indore neared Rs 110 a litre while diesel reached almost Rs 99 after fuel prices were raised yet again.

Overall, petrol prices crossed Rs 110 a litre and diesel at Rs 100 in several districts of Madhya Pradesh. Petrol price was hiked by 35 paise per litre and diesel by 26 paise, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Petrol prices on Saturday in Bhopal stand at Rs 109.30 a litre and diesel at Rs 98.73 a litre. In some parts of the state, the prices are around Rs 111 per litre and diesel crossed Rs 100 for a litre, Ajay Singh, President, Petrol Pump Dealers Association told PTI on Saturday.

On the other hand, the prices of petrol and diesel in Indore, the biggest city of the state, reached 109.32 and Rs 96.76 per litre respectively. Singh said that the prices of these oil products in Madhya Pradesh are higher than the neighbouring states. Petrol pump owners in the border districts are suffering the most due to higher prices in Madhya Pradesh.

" I know that several of these petrol pump owners near Uttar Pradesh borders themselves get the petrol and diesel from the neighbouring state for their own vehicles," he said. Singh said that petrol is cheaper by Rs 12 and diesel by Rs 9 a litre in Uttar Pradesh. He demanded that these products should be brought under the purview of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) for the uniformity of the prices across the country.

The oil companies issue a tender to purchase crude from the international market once every three months. This means the rate is fixed once for a period of three months. In such cases, the daily dynamic pricing for the people is not understandable, Singh said. The people are also facing problems with higher prices of the petroleum products.

"Petrol is becoming expensive day by day, ruining my budget. The government should give relief to the common man from inflation by reducing the tax on this fuel," said one Vijay Verma, who was refilling petrol for his bike at a pump in Indore.

Federation of Madhya Pradesh Motors and Goods Transport Association President Parvindar Singh Bhatia told PTI that the transport business was already sluggish due to COVID-19 outbreak. Now, this business is being affected by 40 percent due to the impact of expensive diesel. He said that there is a decrease in the bookings of goods of general need especially those sent from central India to South India due to rising freight rates. Earlier on Friday, Madhya Pradesh's Home Minister Narottam Mishra had blamed the previous Congress government in the state for the inflation of petrol and diesel.

"Our government has not increased any tax on petrol and diesel since the past 15 months while this was done by the previous Kamal Nath led Congress government," he said and added that the opposition party had promised to give relief on fuel prices in their manifesto.

On the other hand, State Congress spokesman Aminul Khan Suri asked what has been stopping the ruling regime from giving relief by reducing the prices of diesel and petrol.

"This government is still so scared of then chief minister Kamal Nath that it remembers him in every statement," he said.

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