ADDING FIRE TO THE FUEL ISSUE

Long have the government and the oil companies been playing a hide-and-seek game and avoiding core issues and inconvenient (for them!) questions. It is time we added some fire to the fuel issues so that out of the conflagration the truth would emerge.

This nation was not conceptualized as a market economy where the vagaries of the market forces would determine its direction and fate. Such was NOT the idea of the Founding Fathers and Planners of this great nation, who wanted to give shape to a welfare state where the needs of the citizenry guided its policies and actions. The core systems of this nation were planned and implemented not as profit-and-loss enterprises, but as mechanisms to realize certain needs and meet certain aims, and to contribute to the stable working of this democratic nation. PM Singh and his 'liberalization' brigade are welcome to go to the founding principles of this nation if they wish to update themselves. It is evident that these worthies do not understand, nor care for, stable social systems as mediated by a people-oriented government.

In this context, does the government believe that stability in the fuel sector is key to national developement? And how are they proposing to achieve that in the face of a fickle oil market? For them the best option is to leave the people and the nation at the mercy of the market forces and let them fend for themselves. At the very same moment they are not foregoing the additional monies that accrue to them by way of taxes whenever a price hike is implemented--and that too without any "sweat"! This is something akin to running with the hare and hunting with the hounds!

The Indian taxpayer has made substantial investments in oil exploration and refining and related infrastructure. The Indian refining and processing costs are some of the lowest in the world. What about the Indian crude production? What percentage of the domestic needs could be met by that alone?

Another little publicized fact is that the Indian oil companies process the imported crude into various value-added products and re-export a huge quantity of that, earning sizeable profits. There is no separate import of crude for this; it is clubbed with the total import, and the whole burden is put on the shoulders of the consumer in the street. This has to be stopped.

There is widespread feeling that the government is a willing dancer to the avaricious piping of the oil companies when it comes to the "loss assessment" and the periodic arbitrary hikes in fuel prices. Internationally crude prices rise and fall, but in India the fuel price has only one way to go--UP! Maybe this is the 'progress' that they have in the 'progressive alliance' that is the government...

It is time we got clear answers to  at least a dozen questions.

A DOZEN QUESTIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT

1. What was the total quantum of domestic crude production in 2010-11? And its total pricing?


2. What is the final sale price per litre of domestically refined fuel, including nominal profits? (Transportation costs can be considered separately, as it is done now.)


3. What percentage of domestic consumption could be met by processing the domestic crude?


4. What was the quantum of crude imports for the previous year ? Its total cost ?


5. What was the processing cost in the Indian refineries? (As the infrastructural investments in refineries etc have already been made by the taxpayer, that need not be factored in; rather, what are the actual refining/processing costs?)


6. Considering the above (# 4 & 5), and adding a nominal profit, what is the recommended retail price of a litre of the 'imported' fuel?  Is it cheaper or costlier than the domestic processed fuel, and by how much?


7. What is the total quantum/value of re-exports of petro products made by the oil companies in the same period as above?


8. Have the above value-added petro products been manufactured from crude imported separately or from the total quantum of imports for the year?


9. What is the profit that has accrued to the oil companies from the above (# 7) export transaction?


10. What are the Central taxes/State taxes respectively on a litre of fuel?


11. What was the tax amount that accrued to the government each time as a result of the last three price hikes? What percentage of the taxes are ploughed back into oil-related fields?


12. What was the total subsidies that were given to the oil companies? On what basis was it computed?

As we all know, these are all 'inconvenient' questions for the "powers that be". Vague statements and obfuscation have been the characteristics of "official speak" in this connection till now.

It is high time a strong mechanism for the rationalization of fuel price (one nation, one price--why Delhi should have the lowest price?) and its maintenance at a stable level has to be evolved as a national priority. Frittering away the precious results of the sizeable investments made of the tax payer's money in building the temples of progress of this nation, sadly, is the unsustainable economic mantra of Singh and his cohorts.

NOBODY has the right to sell off what he has not built or what he doesn't own!

This mindlessness has to be stopped--NOW!

      * * * * * * * * * * * *