Petrol Prices - A comparative study

There is an on going debate in Facebook regarding the petroleum prices in different countries and how the Indian Petrol price is more than that of neighbouring countries.

I found this comparison interesting and did a little bit of internet surfing on this matter to get some idea of what this is all about. Given below is what I found from the Internet.


There is in fact a website in which such kind of data is compiled (with necessary disclaimers of course) ... and hence I thought I would also incorporate the same disclaimers here ...

Disclaimers:
1) The data has been garnered from various sources on the Internet. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
2) The prices are not strictly comparable because:
(a) They cover different grades of petrol
(b) They cover a period of .... 6-7 months? ...
(c) Some prices are inclusive of local taxes, while others are exclusive
(d) Prices vary across different regions within a country (wildly ... seems it is a free for all, unlike
the price of other commodities).
(e) All the data on this page is gathered from internet. I did not go around to all these countries
gathering this data.
(f) I am not responsible for the accuracy of the data.
(g) If you detect any mistake, please let me know and show me the source of the correct information. Only then I may think of acknowledging my mistake.
(h) I did this unnecessary exercise just out of curiosity with no profit objective. I am not
responsible for any gains or losses of any kind that anyone derives from this page.

Now comes the Information:
All prices are in Indian Rupees
Notwithstanding the disclaimers, we get a fairly good idea of what the table means regarding the petrol prices.

Country	Petrol/ltr	Diesel/ltr	% Deviation from India (petrol)	Comments
India	66 to 73	41 to 45	0	Over 40 per cent of the price of petrol is made up of taxes. While petrol has been freed from government control and is priced at market rates, diesel continues to be sold at government-dictated rates. Petrol prices have risen byabout 25 per cent since they were freed from government control in June last year. http://www.petroleumbazaar.com/newsdetail.aspx?id=10145 The Government earned Rs 1.02 lakh crore by way of taxes on these items in 2010-11. Now where does this money go? May be we should ask this question to Mr. Kalmadi, Mr Raja, Mr Amar Singh etc.
Pakistan	46 to 47	51 to 52	-35%	No subsidy for diesel ?
Bangladesh	47 to 50	29 to 32	-31%	Diesel is subsidised
Nepal	65 to 70	47 to 50	-4%
Bhutan	60 to 65	45		Same as in India, Bhutan is better than India in the Transparency International's Corruption Index
Sri Lanka	60	40	-17%

Literacy rate in India ...

Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material (source wikipedia).

The idea of Literacy in India has always been that of the ability to just scribble one's name on a piece of paper. Hence, this 82% (men) and 65 % (women) literacy rates (by itself these are low figures) quoted by government are nothing but delusions. What we consider Literacy in India are not real literacy. The moment someone is able to write one's name, we declare the person literate and add one more person to the "literate" population thereby increasing the percentage. This kind of literacy is another example of how much corrupt Indian society is.

It is no longer sufficient to consider whether a person can 'read' and 'write' some preliminary words (in India it is just the name of the person), and it is necessary to consider more meaningful aspects of literacy in education and in society as a whole, if we are to complete the transition from a backward country to a really developing country.

Rather than a meaningless literacy rate, we should have something more on the lines of "education rate" and count only those persons who are educated to a minimum level of matriculation. That would give a more realistic picture of India's state of literacy.

I think then the real Literacy Rate would come down to 20-30 %.

As you sow, so shall you reap !

People all over India had been shouting foul about how incompetent our government is and how lax our security and intelligence systems are. I do not think they have anything to complain about.

"We the people of India hereby solemnly resolve to elect to our parliament and legislative assemblies, totally incompetent, irresponsible, unscrupulous, unworthy, and criminal candidates, every five years or less, on the basis of religion, caste, regionalism and favouritism and cast our votes for money or cheap desi Liquor or unrealistic and populist election promises."

This is the motto for the common man of India. How on earth do we expect to have responsible and proactive political class? We are getting what we deserve.

I do not think that the people of India has any right to complain about the numerous terrorist attacks, financial scams, corruption, riots, red tapism, poverty etc etc etc in our beloved "Mera Bharat Mahaan".

I ask the common man of India -
Where was your sense of justice, your sense of righteousness, and your sense of patriotism when you had voted for the wrong candidate just because he was of your religion, or your caste or may be from your community?
Why did you cast your vote in return for some petty sum of money or a bottle of cheap desi liquor?
Why did you believe in a man who makes populist promises just to come in power and then forget the plights of common man?
Why did you not cast the vote based on merit and competence?
If you do not believe in competence, how can you expect that from people who have been chosen by you?
How can you expect incompetent, unscrupulous and irresponsible people of your choosing, now suddenly take right steps?

You are reaping the harvest of your own sowing. Why complain?