Govt seriously considering dual pricing for diesel

[zaks]

Saw this news today in TOI, does this mean we car owners who shelled out more for diesel cars are $crewed?
How fast can they get this thing done, if at all?

[simran]

Diesel may cost more for car owners- Oil & Gas-Energy-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: There's a bump ahead for those who favour big diesel automobiles - both imported and Indian-made - because of the cheaper fuel. PM Manmohan Singh on Tuesday asked oil minister Murli Deora to begin work on a system, which if finally implemented, could see owners of such vehicles as well as industrial users pay a higher price than transporters or farmers.

Sources privy to the thinking in the government said it was early days yet but the options discussed included levying a prohibitive duty of up to half the value of foreign-made non-commercial diesel vehicles to curb their imports.

As the government starts working on a dual pricing strategy for diesel, oil minister Murli Deora has declined to comment on whether he met the PM Manmohan Singh towards this end. “I don’t comment on my meetings with the PM. All I can say is my ministry is examining options to curb unwarranted spurt in diesel demand which is hurting the state-run oil companies... we are looking at pros and cons and practical difficulties of introducing a differential pricing regime,” he told TOI.

More on the link.

[suman]

I wonder why, as usual its only the "big" diesels being mentioned - why not the mid-range & small ones as well? If the idea is to penalize non-commercial vehicles which run on Diesel, it should be for all.

[hvkumar]

Creating more and more opportunities for abusing the system and corruption. Look at how the dual-pricing kerosene system works. Or how low prices of kerosene encourage adulteration with expensive petrol and diesel. One more way to encourage black markets for diesel. No choice but to have market-linked prices for diesel, whether it is Rs 100 or Rs 150 per litre, instead of pegging it to USD 85 as it is now.

[Hackett]

Govt may advise the oil companies to brand the diesel accordingly with difference in quality and grade.

[METISWHG]

they are just prompting me to buy a tractor now (only for trips to fuel pump). Big B is a farmer & I will soon claim my right to be one.

[rajivanoj]

If thats for BIG diesel cars, then i should get an used fiat 137D , and use it only when i need to fill diesel from petrol station...then i should transfer the diesel to my lancer.

[asr245]

Originally Posted by METISWHG

they are just prompting me to buy a tractor now (only for trips to fuel pump). Big B is a farmer & I will soon claim my right to be one.

Originally Posted by rajivanoj

If thats for BIG diesel cars, then i should get an used fiat 137D , and use it only when i need to fill diesel from petrol station...then i should transfer the diesel to my lancer.

Hmm... maybe I will buy a 2nd hand almost useless truck, double or triple the fuel tank capacity, fill it up and sell the diesel at a slightly higher premium. I think I already have customers

Am sure there will be many trying to do that (not buy a truck but sell diesel from their trucks). Why cant they simply add one time "fuel surcharge" for private diesel vehicles??

[ethanhunt123]

Looks like a good idea if implemented correctly. But as always in India, it will lead to more hanky panky stuff.

[snaronikar]

Its true and MOP is studying this proposal which PM has told them to do it. So all the diesel heads may have to shell more if this come into effect.

[METISWHG]

Originally Posted by asr245

Hmm... maybe I will buy a 2nd hand almost useless truck, double or triple the fuel tank capacity, fill it up and sell the diesel at a slightly higher premium. I think I already have customers

Am sure there will be many trying to do that (not buy a truck but sell diesel from their trucks). Why cant they simply add one time "fuel surcharge" for private diesel vehicles??

on the prespective customers part.
Most of the diesel vehicles are private to my guess.
subsiding commercial vehicles will only lead to malpractices. we can have specefically enabled pumps(within the existing setup) for subsidizzed diesel which provide a specefic weekly or monthly quota of subsidized diesel to 'listed or qualified' vehicles.

[pranavt]

Something which will be manipulated by most people who're friends with politicians and what-not. So it's the common man who will get screwed because of high prices while "farmers" like Amitabh Bachan (sp?) will abuse the system and buy it at a cheaper rate than most of us. I'm echoing the idea of buying a useless truck and taking that to fuel pumps to buy cheaper diesel.

[Sahil]

If they give us better quality diesel with the price hike, i wouldnt complain.

Does "Big" diesel engine mean big cubic capacity or large size?

[Path_Finder]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Creating more and more opportunities for abusing the system and corruption. Look at how the dual-pricing kerosene system works. Or how low prices of kerosene encourage adulteration with expensive petrol and diesel. One more way to encourage black markets for diesel. No choice but to have market-linked prices for diesel, whether it is Rs 100 or Rs 150 per litre, instead of pegging it to USD 85 as it is now.

Very true. Dual pricing will only encourage black market and hoarding.

On the other hand, with the current subsidies, no government can risk taking it to market linked pricing. So this is a kind of self inflicted impasse.

Car consumption of diesel is miniscule compared to that of goods transport and public transport. So this move is just populist. I hope sense prevails and status quo is maintained.

[agspins]

Hopefully as mentioned in some earlier report this would be for Big diesels(above 14-1500).
this wouldnt have sense that one ends up paying more for a fuel efficient vehicle like say an indica...
rather this should be more on the lines of U.S (gas guzzler tax),where u pay more for big cubic capacity vehicles...