We are constrained to write to you in the Prime Minister’s Office in the light of alarming developments, particularly the unbearable fuel prices and the government’s massive privatization exercise.

Exorbitant Fuel Taxation in India Over the Past six Years

The past six years have witnessed a systematic assault on consumers through exorbitant fuel taxation. An estimated 780 million Indians are in the 15-64 years age group – a demographic that regularly uses petrol and diesel. Besides, the country has 282 million active Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) customers.
In 2021, the tax on the base petrol & diesel cost rose to an unprecedented 260% and 256% respectively. Government revenue from just these two products shot up 560%, from ₹5,25,37,00,00,000 in 2013 to ₹29,40,00,00,00,00,000 in the eleven months of FY2021. While consumers globally benefited from the sharp fall in crude oil prices, Indians face the debilitating prospect of paying more for fuel now when, despite oil prices recovering significantly from their lows, they are still half of what they were in 2013-14.
Meanwhile LPG cost has doubled over the last 7 years. Unable to afford cylinders any longer, a majority of Indian households face a return to firewood and dung cakes for their earthen stoves, with the associated pollution, risks to health and fire hazards.
If these blows are not fatal to the fiscal well-being of Indians, fuel tax has a cascading effect on virtually everything purchased by us. Input costs for industry – small, medium & large - are shooting up thanks to high fuel costs, forcing them to pass on the increase to customers.
Nothing makes this more starkly evident than economic indicators – we saw the worst of both possible worlds when factory output shrank by 1.6% while retail inflation surged to 5.03% (urban food inflation is at 5.63%). It was not the pandemic that caused this hardship. The breath-taking economic mismanagement since 2017 had put Indian well-being at risk. In January 2020, families were already making hard choices between feeding children and educating them.
Despite the massive surge in government income from taxation of oil products, its coffers are shockingly empty. The latest budget presentation estimates that FY21 revenue deficit was 7.5% and the fiscal deficit 9.5%. These estimates are likely to be revised downwards - the accuracy of government data has been in question in recent times.

Indiscriminate Privatization of National Assets

Naturally, this forces the government to look elsewhere for even more revenue – if it attempts to collect more fuel taxes, the entire nation might take to the streets in protest. Privatization of national assets has become the government’s panacea; it dovetails well with the intimate nexus it seems to enjoy with a handful of Indian corporate captains. National assets, created painstakingly since Independence, are now on the block. Many fear that they will be surrendered in a distress sale, most likely to the same crony capitalists whose personal and corporate wealth soared since 2014. Another aspect of our social justice framework also disappears with privatization: affirmative action for millions deprived of social and economic opportunity was driven by the public sector.
The stock markets might cheer Corporate India getting public assets for a song, the revenues and profits of a few wealthy men might continue to surge at a pace not seen before. However, when one combines the unjust fuel pricing, the stuttering economy and privatization with the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources, the dilution of regulations protecting our environment, and the elimination of protections provided by labor laws… it is almost impossible to see how 2021 and subsequent years might turn out to be anything but bleak for Indian society in general.
It is still not too late to attempt a course correction. We request you to immediately bring fuel prices back in line with global trends – Indians paying the highest taxes on the planet for fuel speaks poorly of your desire to ensure we live lives with dignity. We also ask that your government re-evaluates what seems to be indiscriminate privatization of public assets.

Sign This Petition
Through this petition to the honorable Prime Minister , let us demand to lower exorbitant fuel prices that affect our normal life and to stop hasty and indiscriminate selling of our national assets.

Sign this petition now!