PUNE/HYDERABAD: The hike in fuel prices has come in for severe criticism from IT professionals.
The government has announced a hike of Rs 5 for a litre of petrol and increased Rs 3 for a litre of diesel.
The government also announced an increase of Rs 50 on LPG. The opposition Bharatya Janata Party termed the hike as the "unleashing of economic terror on the nation."
The Left parties, which support the government from outside, have criticized the hike.
The fuel price hike, though expected, came in the face of a looming slowdown in the US economy, which is likely to have a ripple effect on other nations.
Indian IT firms were already feeling the pinch of this threatening recession and a strong rupee.
Devesh Dodeja, a Pune-based business analyst minced no words as he highlighted the way in which the Indian government has been handling the oil crisis and demand-supply scenario.
“We have seldom heard of reduction in fuel cost, it is always a point-to-point increase, and interestingly these raises happen three to four months after the budget, wherein the finance minister blames global issues, etc.”
He added that the bottom line is that prices will continue to increase. Dodeja suggested a way to counter the hike.
“Use your common man’s power. Use auto, bus or any other mode of transport but don’t use your vehicle. That itself is sufficient and a step like this will be enough for ringing in silence on the roads. Then watch the reaction. 1-2-3 and petrol price tumbles down from 60 to 50.”
He added that those in the government won’t feel the pinch of price hike like the common man does.
"This we have been expecting for sometime now,” said Sumukh Hungund, sales manager, Testing Czars.
“But we were hoping that it would not be so high. It is going to make life tougher, maybe it is time we looked at options such as car pool. In Singapore licenses are given out before cars are bought. If we adopt that system we will not only ease traffic and soon we won’t be able to afford running a four wheeler," he added.
"The price of gas is getting higher, all cities should get private players or pipeline gas facility by the existing players. Costs, that way, work as per consumption and is lower by my experience. But if this rate of inflation goes on, most middle class people will find it difficult to exist," Sheetal Deshmukh, an executive with a leading BPO organization said in Hyderabad.
IT executive Shaswati Mukerjee said the high prices of food grains and vegetables will increase even more. “Some of the vegetables have reached almost Rs 40 to 50 rupees a kilo.”
She wondered whether the US president would find fault with Indians for guzzling more fuel.
Ravi Mahajan, partner, Ernst & Young, has a different take: "Although the increase in prices is less than anticipated, it is overall a positive development for the oil and gas downstream industry."