Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) The hike in petrol prices Saturday — the steepest ever — has been greeted by anger and disappointment by people in the national capital, who worried about their household budget going awry and feared inflation.

Oil companies Saturday decided to increase the price of petrol by Rs.5 per litre from midnight.

The moment the news flashed across the media, petrol stations in the city saw long queues of vehicles with people in a hurry to fill up the tanks before the hiked prices came into effect.

Shweta Arya, consultant in an infrastructure firm, lamented that her transportation budget have spiked up in the last one year.

“My petrol expenditure has doubled in the last one year. How will the common man survive after such a price hike,” she wondered.

Sushma Sharma, an MBA student from Noida, is worried that the hike will also impact food prices.

“It’s not just about transportation. These days every thing depends on petrol. Food items also will be costly now,” she said.

Danish Khan, an auto parts dealer, said the only option left for him is to purchase a CNG kit for his car.

“All I can do is to get a CNG kit installed in my car, which will again set me back by at least Rs.30,000. The government has once again proved how shameless it is with another hike. They are doing this every few months now,” he added.

Vinay Verma, 32, wondered if the government could tolerate corruption among politicians and bureaucrats, which has drained the country’s coffers, then why couldn’t it also take on the burden of subsidy.

“I know that the hike is because of the international increase in prices. But what angers me is that the government can tolerate scams worth thousands of crores of rupees but fails when it comes to international fuel rates,” lamented Verma, a human resources executive.