States must take some measures to ease fuel prices for people, says External Affairs Minister Jaishankar

On Sunday(10th July), External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated the state governments must take some measures to ease fuel prices for the people. While addressing reporters, Jaishankar stated that the oil India is getting is the cheapest available in the global market, and this makes the government to reduce the price, and the State governments now must take some measures to ease it for the people. "It may or may not be from Russia, my obligation is to protect my people from the hiking oil prices", said Jaishankar.

He addressed the media while being on a three-day visit to Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. His statements come amid petrol and diesel prices spiking, putting the common man on a tough spot. The last major revision in fuel prices was on May 21 after India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's announced a reduction in central excise duty. Duty on petrol was later cut by Rs 8 per litre while diesel was cut by Rs 6 per litre. After the Sitharaman's announcements ,many states including Rajasthan and Kerala, slashed VAT on fuels in the state.

Since then, the price of petrol has been hovering around Rs 100 per liter mark in metropolitan cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, while the price of diesel in the cities has been around Rs 95 per litre.In Delhi, at the time of writing, a litre of petrol continues to retail at Rs 96.72, while that of diesel is priced at Rs 89.62. According to Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas showed on Saturday data, consumption of petroleum products in India in June soared 17.9% year-on-year to 18.67 million tonnes. During the same period in 2021, the fuel intake was 15.84 million tonnes.

Jaishankar's comments come amid a tussle between the Centre and State, blaming each other for soaring fuel prices. State Governments claim that the primary reason behind the increase in pump fuel prices over the last few years is the steep rise in Central Government's excise duty component.The Central Government however rebut by arguing that they have reduced the fuel price as much as they can and now its upto the states to reduce rates thereby relive the common man of the burden.