DO AWAY WITH SUBSIDIES ON PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
A bold decision to dismantle the regulated price mechanism for petroleum products is required to be taken in the coming budget. With the increasing level of fiscal deficit, any further continuance of regulated regime will only worsen the already alarming position.
With the move, government can save at least Rs. 50,000 cores of the exchequers, per annum. The same money may be used as corpus for investing into various viable employments generation schemes under Public-Private arrangements especially in Education, Healthcare and Sanitation etc in rural areas. This will not only help in upliftment of the rural folks but also curb to some extent the indirect funding of petrol consumption by the affluent people.
With the market regulated price mechanism in place, the other leading private sector companies may come in the retail business of the petroleum products, which presently is dominated by the Public Sector Oil Companies. Opening up of the market will compel these companies to improve their productivity and services.
Today, when everybody is expressing concerns over the vehicular pollution and its adverse effect on the climate, subsidy on petroleum products is an irony by any measure. The need of the hour is to stop the subsidy and instead improve the delivery mechanism at the retail outlet which is infested with malafide practices.
Alok Sharan
Dy. Manager (Marketing)
State Bank of Hyderabad
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