Are more steps needed to moderate consumption of oil products in India?
Absolutely. Users and consumers can only react if the price goes up. We know that for certain products, the price has not gone up. Why would anybody react? If I am still paying the price same as last year, or the year before, I will continue to consume in the same way. Clearly, the effect of price changes can happen if the price actually changes. Second, there is absolutely no doubt that we should do everything to moderate consumption. The increase in crude oil prices has not been passed on fully to the retail level. If the government were to further hike prices even moderately, would it not impact inflation? The BK Chaturvedi Committee, which I was a member of, has looked at everything and given recommendations. What we have tried to do is to make the whole thing more transparent. We will have to wait and see how much of the report is accepted. In effect, you are saying that India needs to probably prepare and live with further adjustments to fuel prices and the resulting inflationary
