Cheers! to the spirit of the common man. With the rapid increase in the petrol and diesel price hike, celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi will be a challenge this year. But yet we can see festivities all across the country.

With all kinds of memes being made on the petrol and diesel price hike, it seems something that people are agitated about but still can’t help it. With the unprecedented petrol and diesel price hike around the festive season of Ganesh Chaturthi, people in Mumbai may not be very happy.

A day ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi festival, Maharashtra has the highest diesel and petrol prices as compared to the rest of the states. People are agitated and have low festive spirits due to the rise in commodities due to the price hike in fuel costs. It seems like this year visiting the friends and family on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi will be a costly affair.

As a matter of fact, across all the states, Maharashtra pays the most for petrol because of a high VAT of 39.12% in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, while the tax rate for the rest of the state is 38.11%.

The state-run oil companies did not raise prices today. Fuel costs continue to be at all-time record highs.

Only the state governments of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have relieved its people from this hike by reducing the VAT which varies from state to state.  

Rajasthan has cut petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2.5 per litre, Andhra Pradesh by Rs 2 and West Bengal by Re 1.

It is unbelievable to see the prices soaring so high. With

The price of petrol is Rs 88.26 and Rs 77.47 for diesel in Mumbai.  Those living in Parbhani, 500 km away from Mumbai, are paying at least Rs 90.02 per litre. This considerable rise is due to the higher transportation costs. This is the highest known price for petrol in India. Wonder how the people of Mumbai will survive and in such high soaring prices of almost everything, there is less than a person can do at a festival.

To make it worse, private fuel retailers are charging a notch more than state-run ones like IOC, BPCL and HPCL.

In Delhi, petrol costs Rs 80.87 and diesel Rs 72.97. In Hyderabad, petrol costs Rs 85.75 and diesel Rs 79.37. In Bengaluru, the price of petrol is Rs 83.51 and that of diesel is Rs 75.32. In Chennai, petrol costs Rs 84.05 and diesel Rs 77.13. In Kolkata, petrol costs Rs 83.75 and diesel Rs 75.82.

There will be no cut in the excise duty, and this is clear by the actions of the central government. So common man cannot hope for any relief since excise duty is the key component of the retail price of fuel.

The reasons for this shoot up in the petrol and diesel prices are the Global crude oil prices and the rupee’s exchange rate. US WTI crude futures are trading close to $70 a barrel while Brent crude futures are at $79.30 a barrel.

A falling rupee is increasing the cost of import of crude oil for India, which imports around 80% of its demand. The rupee is now just 10 paise away from the 73 marks against the US dollar.