India only country where petrol, diesel prices declined in last 3 years: Hardeep Singh Puri

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said India is the only country where rates of petrol and diesel have come down between November 2021 and April 2024Replying to various queries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha the minister also informed that the government is encouraging dialogue between Oil Marketing Companies OMCs and dealers regarding margins for the latterPuri noted that petrol and diesel were deregulated during the UPA governmentDeregulation means that prices of the commodity in the market are not set by the government he addedPrices here being high and elsewhere being low Its exactly the opposite In India today the prices are the lowest and is the only country where prices have actually come down Puri saidHe attributed this to very bold ambitious and farsighted decisions taken by the Prime MinisterThe prices in the world I am giving you a twoyear reference period between November 2021 and April 2024 Why Im doing this because we have prices available In India the price of petrol came down 1365 per cent and of diesel 1097 per cent the minister saidHowever he said in France the increase in petrol price has been 2219 per cent Germany 1528 per cent Italy 1482 per cent Spain 1658 per centThese are all published international figures of prices he addedPuri also highlighted that while prices in India have declined the rates have gone up in neighbouring countriesThe minister also attacked the UPA government for floating oil bonds Oil bonds were floated for Rs 141 lakh crore Today we are having to pay back Rs 35 lakh crore for that kind of a farsighted decision he saidOn the dealers margin increase Puri said this is a commercial contractual situation between OMCs and the dealers whom they employ as part of that contractAs of July 1 2024 there are 90639 retail outlets in the country of which about 90 per cent belong to public sector companies and rest to the private sector companiesWe have been monitoring this there are discussions going on between OMCs and the dealers Last time the margins were increased was in 2017 Dealers went to court because they saw that some of the conditions in the stipulated guidelines were somewhat stringentSo when the dealer margin is raised one of the conditions that the dealer has to comply with is to ensure that the wages to their employees are paid according to the minimum wages actSo OMCs won the case in the high court and then the dealers went up to the Supreme Court in 2022 It is sub judice but we are encouraging dialogue between OMCs and dealers and we would like to see them coming to a conclusion he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever