[raksrules]

I do not own a car and these things are only pushing me away from ever buying one. It would anyways be just lying in building parking for 99% of duration. My brother also has also stopped taking his city (it has CNG installed) due to not being able to find parking in BKC and such.
Welcome to India.

[msdivy]

Nobody for, Petrol price hike: Call for bandh?

Originally Posted by raksrules

I do not own a car and these things are only pushing me away from ever buying one.

Fuel is a small cost in the total cost of ownership of the car.

[adi.mariner]

Originally Posted by akash_v12

Filled up today. Was shocked to see prices sky-rocketing again. ₹90.06/L of fuel in Pune. Taxes are way too high, with close to 50% tax on a litre of fuel.
I've started getting the feeling that going to the Gulf and filling up will be cheaper than filling up here.

Quite been seeing quite a few Teslas in Dubai as well. I think they are also feeling the pinch of the high Fuel prices (+5% VAT) in the Gulf.
After Sachin's 100 centuries, this is the next 100 milestone in order.

[PrideRed]

To buy a what is essentially a 10 lac rupee car I need earn almost 25-30lac(10 lac car retails at 20-25Lac with taxes probably) excluding loan interest! The story is not over, I have to pay 50 rupees tax for every litre of fuel, 18% GST every time I service. After paying so much tax, manufacturers say we cannot offer safer cars at this price point and Govt. cannot offer good roads or amend rules! There is no issue in selling accessories like sunfilm, bull bars and GST is happily levied but penalise me after paying the GST! Its high time a tax payer deserves the due respect.

[maddy42]

Cannot understand the reason for this hike. On one side banks savings interest rates have dropped that having a fixed deposit does not make sense anymore vis a vis inflation. The economy is slowing waking up but this govts intent of raising fuel prices do not add up. Electric cars are still a while away from being mainstream and we cannot replace the diesel pump sets or tractors on the farm with anything electric! I really hope a protest is raised against this.

Small rant:
We as a society have let govts run a socialist policy like free rice, wheat, pulses, ration, eggs, gas cylinder, subsidy on fertilizer and electricity to the farmer and the poor. We also cannot control pilferages in the govt and at the time of elections vote based on caste or bunk the election as its a long weekend. When the corona crisis hit we realised our healthcare system is in the gutter, similar to our govt education system, our law and order and heck our judicial system. We never get what we paid for, so i dont understand what infrastructure are we funding?

[Nalin1]

Somehow some people think you need to own a fuel driven vehicle to get affected by crazy fuel prices.

You don't need to own any vehicle, not even a cycle, but WILL still be affected as fuel prices are directly linked to literally every commodity, public transport fares, auto fares, cabs etc.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by maddy42

Cannot understand the reason for this hike. On one side banks savings interest rates have dropped that having a fixed deposit does not make sense anymore vis a vis inflation. T
Small rant:
We as a society have let govts run a socialist policy like free rice, wheat, pulses, ration, eggs, gas cylinder, subsidy on fertilizer and electricity to the farmer and the poor. . We never get what we paid for, so i dont understand what infrastructure are we funding?

Very true- where will senior citizens keep their money when FD rates nosedive? In stocks? True inflation keeps going up- people who need to negotiate to make daily vegetable purchases are hassled by the take-it-or-leave-it attitude shown by the vendors. I honestly feel that this whole subsidy business has created some arrogance in the agricultural community, considering they are an influential votebank. When will the time come when the salaried middle class who has no choice but to pay taxes on income, becomes just as influential ? Because they, as consumers are a very important backbone of the economy, whether it is consumption of goods or services.

[Dry Ice]

It sure hurts - directly, indirectly etc. But we need to wake up and smell the coffee.

See the cost/expense break up of the latest budget.

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Very true- where will senior citizens keep their money when FD rates nosedive?

Senior citizens get a generous 0,5% extra on FD. What more is needed?

Look at the positives :

1. New car buyers would be cautious. So that translates to more money spent on other things. Direct boost to economy.
2. Less traffic problems since car pooling would increase.
3. EV sales would skyrocket.
4. Less pollution because low traffic volume.
5. Healthier options like cycling to work would increase.

I don't understand why everyone is cribbing about.

Btw, I pulled the above points from the next press release of GOI.

[lurker]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

It sure hurts - directly, indirectly etc. But we need to wake up and smell the coffee.

.. and the coffee stinks.

basically it is an admission that the govt is bankrupt, out of ideas and expenses far outweigh receipts. & frankly if the govt of the day thinks it is such a big burden to manage the country and they still find it difficult after imposition of historically high taxes, they should call it a day and quit serving the people.

Let it sink in that we are talking of highest taxation and fuel prices in the world being levied in India. This destroys small business and medium scale industries and encourages only crony capitalists and corporates to wipe the floor of all meddling competition. It destroys employment rates, and restricts all economic growth to just corporates. High fuel prices also have knock over effect on every other segment affecting profitability and further growth of business and industry.

[mvadg]

Be ready to cry, and I mean really cry, once the petrol price crosses the Rs.100 mental barrier. After that there'll be no barriers until it hits Rs.1000 per litre. I expect the price of petrol to rise rapidly until 2024 once the Rs. 100 per litre mark is crossed. There may even be an EV Cess to encourage people to move to EVs. There's no telling what other types of taxes they'll include to justify a Rs 650 per litre petrol price.

[Spaced Out]

Originally Posted by RoadMonkey

Well, somebody has to pay for the massive amount of inefficiencies in public expenditure. This isn't a rant against the welfare state but rather than wasteful expenditure by said state, but if you look closely, it's not their fault as such either. It is what the public wants and votes for, if any government dare revoke inefficient policies, we end up witnessing protests. The urban upper middle class is irrelevant as a voting bloc and thus their interests are rarely looked after in policy decision making.

Whenever we pick up wasteful expenditure, why is we look at welfare schemes first?

Lets look at the massive government expansion (in terms of bureaucracy numbers) and reduction (in terms of services offered) in the past 15 years. We have seen a steady decline of government services in Education and Health.

Before anyone preaches about the need for private schooling, I grew up in the 90s. As a Fauji kid, we really tried to get into the KVs which had the best teachers. Also, please show me the developed economy that educates its people primarily through the private sector. And if private sector in education is great, then lets begin by privatizing IITs and IIMs.

Same in health, while the govt has expanded the AIIMS network, the PHC system is crumbling in North India. That is not due to this government alone but something that has been happening for the last 15 years.

Fact is, the Indian economy has been under steady external pressure. We did a decent job during the 2007 financial crisis but some massive own goals (Demonetization - which the government refuses to accept was a bad idea) have not helped. I think the GST for all its faults was / is a good idea but the competitive approach adopted by the Centre in dealing with non-allied state governments is not helping.

Finally, the government is intent in massive greenfield projects in states where it has won big (metro in agra, airport in jewar) as well as subtly withdrawing in areas where it can (agriculture, education, health).

It has no choice - the pie is contracting. While its expenditures are growing.

White elephant projects don't help this country. The new Parliament Building is going to cost Rs 971 Crore. As per the Speaker: [I]It will not be a building of bricks and stones, it will be the fulfilment of the dreams of 130 crore people[/i]

The whole cost of the Central Vista redevelopment: Rs 20,000 Crore.


Unfortunately, we have become a very polarized country in the last 8 years or so. It's not possible to have a debate on some of these subjects without it all being about PM Modi. But the fact remains that they have made a hash of the economy while privileging social engineering / polarization.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

It sure hurts - directly, indirectly etc. But we need to wake up and smell the coffee.

See the cost/expense break up of the latest budget.

Attachment 2090895

Has anybody bothered to ask the government what is the outcome of the 22 % expenditure share on Centrally sponsored and Central sector schemes?

[Cessna182]

Fuel hikes hurt the poor the most. They have to pay more for the already shambolic public transport vehicles like shared autos and open jeep taxis in tier 2 and 3 cities.

During elections, the sheer magnitude of spending is shocking. LED screens everywhere, new helipads, netas roaming around in swanky choppers for weeks. 8k+ crores for a brand new jet. 20k crores for a new parliament. Money is there with the government but not for the common man anymore.

But this is the outcome of a democracy, so we cannot complain.

[RoadMonkey]

Originally Posted by Spaced Out

Whenever we pick up wasteful expenditure, why is we look at welfare schemes first?

I suppose I wasn't clear enough, I didn't call welfare schemes wasteful expenditure. The inefficiency in carrying them out is what I called wasteful. I don't mean healthcare and education as such, the tone of my message would imply I'm hinting at other things. *cough* free electricity *cough*. Let's not even get started on the MSP fiasco going on right now. Discarding the political elements of it - I do not like political discussions - it HAS to be funded from somewhere. The govt cannot just start printing money.

As for economic reforms, I just so happen to be a graduate in the subject. One thing we all learn as we transform from idealists to realists - politics and votes dictate policy, not the economic logic we all study and read. What a majority of people decide to be important is deemed important, regardless of merit. Vanity projects are allowed, accepted and even celebrated in this country. I don't need to say any more.