Petrol price crosses Rs 100 in Darjeeling, @Rs 99.04 in Kolkata

KOLKATA: For the first time, petrol price crossed Rs 100 mark in Bengal on Friday. It hovered between Rs 100.01 and Rs 100.10 in north Bengal and inched towards the three-digit mark in Kolkata.
The places where the price of the fuel exceeded Rs 100, included Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and some areas of North Dinajpur. In Kolkata, it was Rs 99.04. Sources in oil companies pointed out that the price crossed the Rs 100 mark due to higher freight cost in North Bengal while it may be inevitable in Kolkata in next few days.
Snehasish Bhowmik, vice president, West Bengal Petroleum Dealers Association, said that the retail price is fixed only by the oil marketing companies and the main reason behind the rise in the price of petrol in these districts is the distance from the fuel loading point to the fuel stations.“But we are against such never-ending rise of fuel prices. We have decided to wear black badge on the day when it will cross Rs 100 a litre,” he added.
A petroleum expert said that the price of petrol in the city too would have touched the three-digit mark had the state government not reduced taxes on the fuel by Re 1 earlier this year. Bengal was among few states to take up the challenge of the Centre to reduce taxes on petroleum products.
The state finance minister Amit Mitra had announced that there would be Re 1 cut in state taxes on both petrol and diesel from February 22 midnight. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that states would have to reduce tax and then only the Centre could consider some steps of reducing the tax. This implies that the consumers in the state have been getting a Re 1 relief in petrol and diesel prices for the last five months. The state is, however, losing around Rs 50 crore per month due to the reduction in tax.
The taxes in petroleum products include customs duty, excise duty, cess and sales tax. There has also been an additional excise duty along with countervailing duties (CVD). Incidentally, the total demand for petrol across the state is around 1.2 lakh kilo litre (1 KL is 1,000 LTR) per month while the demand for diesel is around 3 lakh KL. Kapin Goenka, a petrol pump owner at Alipurduar, said, “The price hike is affecting our business. Our profit share has remained the same. But we have to invest more in buying petrol. We have to pay salary to our employees. Earlier, one tanker would cost 7 lakh. Now the price has gone up to Rs 11 lakh. Ours is a rural area and people have specific monthly budgets for fuel. The price hike has brought down our sale.”
Hemant Agarwal, owner of N C Prem Kumar and Bros in Darjeeling, said, “I am a petrol user and will feel the pinch.” He questioned, “Is the government working for the people or against them by hiking the fuel prices?”
(With inputs from Deep Gazmer & Pinak Priya Bhattacharya)