Whenever Oil prices shoot up, there is a lot of hue and cry in Indian Media. But that doesn’t happen when vegetable prices or any other prices shoot up. Nor does when any electricity board hikes tariffs, there is no hue and cry. Why? I do sense a conspiracy.

Govt of India and the state govts. impose high taxes on petroleum products. And I think that’s the right thing to do. All Govts. whether Congress or BJP have done the same. But they criticize each other on the same point (i.e. why is not the Govt. reducing the taxes) when they are in opposition. The criticism is political, lets keep it aside.

Why the Govts. impose high taxes on petrol and diesel?

  1. Petroleum is one of the biggest pollutant on the earth. High taxes on petroleum would motivate people to move to cleaner sources of energy. We are seeing the results already: since petrol is costly, many companies are spending lot of money on battery technologies, fuel cells etc. which can be alternatives to petrol. Many Indian companies are taking a big lead on this front.
  2. The biggest funder of the Jihadi forces (and to some extent the communists) is the Oil money. Had there been an alternative to petrol, then Communism would have never become so strong, nor could have Jihadists been so menacing.
  3. I also see a conspiracy in the world taking so long time to find a substitute of Oil. The Oil producing forces want to keep their monopoly and must be using their influence in ensuring that no alterative is found.

Hence, I see, media selectively targeting the petrol price hike as conspiracy to force Govts. lower their taxes so that the Oil producing nations can make more money by increasing the Oil prices, as the net value of Petrol and Diesel will remain the same.

US, China and India are the biggest consumers of Oil in the world. US has good amount of Oil reserves and doesn’t import much. Hence, India being the one of the 2 other big Oil importers makes the Oil producing nations keep a lot of focus on India.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.