as long as diesel is priced the same as petrol,I will continue to buy diesel.
if the trend reverses and diesel starts to cost twice as much as petrol(fat chance)
then I shall consider petrol.

diesels are no longer brought just for economical reasons. they are now also being purchased because they outperform their petrol counterparts.

taxing the diesel cars heavily would be the right thing to do. i wont like it, but it is the right thing.

driving a diesel car for private use in india is cheating , if you think about it.
But I'm doing it.

[srishiva]

For a barrel of oil, you get 19 gallons of petrol and 9 gallons of diesel. So in India, if the demand for diesel is more, there should be excess petrol. So petrol should be sold at cheaper rates.

In Europe, since more diesel is used now a days, they offload petrol to east U.S.

[shankar.balan]

Lets be quite clear and tell the truth here guys - most of us who drive diesel cars and jeeps do so (atleast in some measure) because diesel is less expensive than petrol.

If it were the other way around, Im sure we would be buying petrol cars/ jeeps.

Yes, it is true that diesel is subsidised heavily owing to the truckers lobby and so on, but it is also nice to be able to take advantage of the lower price as long as it lasts.

[4strings]

I have always thought of owning a petrol car, also my running would be under 1000 km per month.

I would buy a Diesel car if its either MJD / DDiS only because its cheaper to run and today's diesel engines outperform petrol on torque.

But if the fuel prices becomes parity, then maybe not. Ill go for the revvs and be a petrolhead for life

[Technocrat]

If coampring the MJD & DDiS engine with their petrol engine(swift 1.3 petrol) & if the fuel costs are same for petrol & Diesel then Diesel will still be preferable as the Diesel is more Fun to drive & yields more mileage than its Petrol sibling. So the Diesel will still make sense.

[GenuineOptimist]

My friend who is working in the finance department as a policy analyst told me a shocking news. The government is about to increase the price of diesel & petrol to Rs. 75 per litre combined with a monthly tax rebate for transport companies on fuel bills. He has worked on the policy recommendation report and it has already been approved by the secretary and even the minister.

They are in talks with lorry owners associations all over India. As an effect there will be No effect on transport costs but the public has to pay Rs. 75 on road price and gets no rebate.

As a good measure, he added that this may not be implemented by Congress because of impending elections, but the next government will surely make this a reality.

[condor]

The transport co's dont do all their working above the table. And there are an infinite number of individual operators with even one or just half a truck, and who never pay IT. Apart from all the effects such a rise can have, these second group will be vociferous in their opposition.

And if the congress does bring it up, the opp'n parties will have a field day. Left & Right included.

[dadu]

Its a nice way rope in the non-payers in the tax net, just like duty drawback claims/ VAT claims, when the transporters file their claims they will have no escape.

But one thing is for sure, we in India cannot remain shielded from paying the "Actual" prices for our fuel usage.

Originally Posted by condor

The transport co's dont do all their working above the table. And there are an infinite number of individual operators with even one or just half a truck, and who never pay IT. Apart from all the effects such a rise can have, these second group will be vociferous in their opposition.

And if the congress does bring it up, the opp'n parties will have a field day. Left & Right included.

[theMAG]

Not to mention the certain bootlegging in transport-diesel that'll occur.

[anandpadhye]

This is a good move.
More and more transport operators will come "on the table". Transportation industry will become more organized, streamlined, adding to our direct tax collection. Public trnasport will be better. Private traport will be more enjoyable - with good qality of fuel available, less traffic - will be more fun to drive for everybody...

[jagan0677]

Whether the hike is coming or not, the time is ripe for all such speculation and comments, i think. And, whether the hike will help OMC'c cut their losses or not, I am sure this will open up another opening for corruption.

What i find difficult to understand is that, the Govt. that was not willing to hike prices, even marginally, for such a long time is now talking about quantum leaps. But higher fuel / energy prices are something we all need to get used to.

Originally Posted by GenuineOptimist

The government is about to increase the price of diesel & petrol to Rs. 75 per litre combined with a monthly tax rebate for transport companies on fuel bills. He has worked on the policy recommendation report and it has already been approved by the secretary and even the minister.

Since you have mentioned about the recommendation reports, whats the reco on the Kerosene/LPG/CNG front? It should be interesting to know whats the price recommendations on kerosene / LPG / CNG?

[condor]

dadu : But one thing is for sure, we in India cannot remain shielded from paying the "Actual" prices for our fuel usage.

Guess we can start with paying the actual price for the fuel. Check these links :

A recent article in Rediff: The great Indian oil trick

And a related article : How transparent is India's oil policy?

[lamborghini]

Yes I will because,
- they are much more fun to drive than their petrol counterparts in most of the cases
- Give a better FE
- Higher resale value

[Insane Devil]

Diesel cars tend to give more mileage than its petrol counterpart. Hence, even if the petrol and diesel are priced equally, I, for one, would surely still go for a Diesel vehicle.

Also, i like the grunt and tourque the diesels have.

[vkochar]

Well - Diesel would sell one day at a very high price & not at subsidised rates, but till then enjoy Diesels as much as you can.

As of right now I think Govt. will Increase the Tax on Diesel Vehicles more.