Sixth petrol price hike in nine months irks daily commuters

Shashikant Gawali,manager,Dominos Pizza,D P Road,says,“When we have our delivery boys travelling about 100 km per day,delivering pizza at 70-80 houses,a small change in petrol price matters a lot.”

For routine commuters who ply between office and home,it might not be directly linked with profits but as Abhay Patil,finance professional who travels to Magarpatta from his house in Kothrud,says,“It pinches when you spend extra money for the same quantity of petrol. For instance,going by my bike’s average,I could travel 55 km for Rs 50 till about a few months ago. Now I spend rupees 60 for the same.”

The Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) hiked petrol prices effective from Tuesday midnight while the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Hindusthan Petroleum (HP) maintained the same prices. The effect was visible immediately as most IOCL and HP petrol pumps were crowded as against BPCL ones that had few customers. “We had double the routine customers at our pump,” says Prashant Padalwar,manager,New Auto Corner Petrol Pump,Navi Peth,an IOCL petrol station. “We witnessed 10- 20 per cent fewer customers than usual. This might last only a day or two as we too are likely to increase prices at our pumps within a day or two,” said Kiran Patni,manager,G Naik and Co,HP pump.

“Petrol prices have gone up as a result of cold wave in Europe that increased crude demand across the continent,hopefully they should come down post winter,” said Ali Daruwalla,spokesperson,Petrol Dealers Association.