Fuel price equate to cost of living. There for it’s not only vehicle owners who feels it when the fuel price go up. We blame the government, government blame the crude oil market, opposition says the government is wrong and we support the opposition. No matter who rules, the percentage from my salary I spend on fuel has increased constantly. Hmm…
There had been two major issues in this country which has been the trumps for the politicians after the independence; war and cost of living. But none ever successfully countered either of them so far.
Americans pay less for fuel. How come? Probably because they have oil there and they own a fair share of the oil market as well. But nevertheless they are also investing a great deal on alternatives. What do we do? Can we do any thing at all rather than blaming some one?
cost of living can't be blamed on fuel price hikes bc the rising cost of fuel is faced by all oil importing countries, and yet most of them keep inflation under control. we get hit more bc the rupee is weakening, making oil imports more expensive to us. cost of living is bc of poor macroeconomic management through excess state spending which also results in rupee depreciation. when govt spends more than what is reflected in productivity increases, demand increases more than supply, imports increase in order to bridge that gap, which causes the rupee to depreciate, and tada fuel imports become even more expensive.
ReplyDeleteI think, the weakness of the ruppee is the main problem.
ReplyDeleteIn Australia, these days, Fuel prices have gone up bcos its highly dependant on the world mkt. But a litre is on average 1.25$, which is roughly 106Rs, so its almost the same. The problem is, spending $1.25 is easier and it doesnt affect ur pocket that much its far different to spending Rs.106 from ur pocket! Thats due to mostly the powerfulness of the currency and the income. I think even the US situ is simmilar, may be they have a little more additional stuff as Mahasen mentioned.
Its difficult to control the oil mkt, but possible to make the currency stronger, I know, easier said than done, but thats the way out.
The other option is to find alternatives. For SL, given the level of research & dev, it will be diffcilut to find and develop alternatives for transport. But we should be able to build alternatives for electricity generation. Why do we use Diesel for that? We can build Hydro-electricity, wind power etc. Using coal power is cheaper, but how mnay years have we taken to build one? Norochcholai is not sure yet even though it has started I guess. So, all these are lack of vision and planning by our politicains and senior officials , I beleive.
In Australia (I assume US/UK is simmilar), the govt doesnt set prices for fuel. Its directly controled by the Mkt. Wen the oil is cheaper, consumer gets the direct advantage and vise versa. In SL, we dont know which tax is applied on top of the actual price. Apart from that, there are subsidies given by govt for rural, off road use (Agri/fishing etc.) etc. use of fuel, which controls the cost of living. Even though Fuel prices are comparatively high, people dont feel a hype in COL.
Its simple mahinda stupinaya. He is going to make a roost with his new mig deals. Its not cheap to educcate your children in UK.
ReplyDelete