New Delhi: With retail prices of fuel now costlier in Delhi in comparison with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, commuters are increasingly crossing the capital’s borders to refill tanks in Noida and Gurugram.
Immediately after finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the Centre’s decision to reduce prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 2.5 a litre, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana had pitched in with their share of value added tax (VAT) reduction by the same amount.
However, Delhi did not, making fuel costlier in Delhi than Noida and Gurugram for the first time in more than two years.
Anshul Singh, a resident of Delhi’s Mayur, travelled an additional seven kilometers in order to refill his car tank in Noida before heading to work on Tuesday.
“It is more than a rupee cheaper here. However, this is so against the normal behavior I have of refilling in Delhi as it has always been cheaper there. As long as Delhi does not reduce prices, this is what I’ll do," he said.
The decision to cut prices was taken on October 4 when price of petrol in Delhi was Rs 84 per litre, while in Noida it was Rs 83.64 and in Gurugram Rs 84.14 per litre.
Next day, the prices were reduced by Rs 5 a litre in Noida and Gurugram while it was down by only Rs 2.50 in the national capital. Fuel prices on Tuesday in Delhi stand at Rs 82.26 a litre while it is Rs 79.87 and Rs 80.96 in Noida and Gurugram, respectively. Similar is the trend for diesel across the area.
The difference in prices has also resulted in petrol pumps on Delhi’s borders witnessing fewer commuters.
“Yes there has been a reduction for sure. Number of litres of fuel sold went down by almost 100 in our petrol pump alone. I hear similar stories in other border pumps as well," said Anklesh Jha, manager of Mayur Vihar’s petrol station, two kilometers away from Noida-Delhi border.
Similarly, several Delhi-based office-goers with work-places in Gurugram, now refill their cars’ tanks in Haryana given the reduced prices.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday slammed the Centre's decision of cutting the fuel price by saying that the actual reduction should have been Rs 10 per litre.
Kejriwal's comments had come hours after the central government announced the slash. He took to Twitter and posted about the increase in excise duty by the Narendra Modi government.
Kejriwal accused the BJP government of cheating and said that the Central government first raised the excise duty on petrol repeatedly and now reduced it only Rs 2.50.
BJP's leader of opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, said the Delhi government owed “much more" to Delhiites and demanded it reduce the petrol price by Rs 10.50 and diesel price by Rs 7.92 per litre.
"Union Finance Minister asking state governments to reduce price by Rs 2.50 is not applicable to Delhi. Kejriwal government is pocketing arbitrarily increased 12 per cent VAT on petrol and 10.5 per cent VAT on diesel," Gupta charged.
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj responded by saying that the Centre is "fooling" people. "For four years, the prices of petrol and diesel were increased and now the Centre is fooling people by decreasing it by Rs 2.50 per litre," he said.
This is an attempt of providing "fake relief" to the people in view of "dipping popularity" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and coming assembly elections in three states, Bhardwaj alleged.
Following the central government's footsteps, key BJP ruled states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh had announced an additional cut of Rs 2.50 per litre on petrol and diesel bringing the effect reduction to Rs 5 per litre on fuel prices.
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