The great oil charade

The meaningless charade over the oil price hikes fails to take into account what needs to be done to make us less vulnerable to oil shocks and protect economic growth. Let us be clear, the price of oil will hit us where it hurts the most. We will not be able to invest in services for all, and not just the rich who can pay.

It is, therefore, essential that we look beyond the price hike. Let us take up the challenge of efficiency. It is clear that the transport sector is the single biggest user -- roughly 30 per cent of the total oil annually used. The first target should be the transport sector, growing madly and disastrously, so far as pollution, congestion and energy security are concerned.

Roughly, 7 per cent of our consumption of oil products is for petrol, which is mainly used in private vehicles, a use that will grow as our cities maintain the car rush. The government does not even set guidelines or regulate fuel efficiency of cars, so that we can get more mileage per drop of petrol.

In addition, we need to plan for mobility without cars, for the sake of energy and environmental security. This is the time to implement programmes for public transport buses, rail-based transport. Can we seize the moment?

No. India likes to do the exact opposite. The finance minister, struggling to balance the books with the latest increase in oil prices, recently told a gallery of automobile manufacturers that he is planning to cut taxes on small cars to increase affordability.

The problem is that while the manufacturers of cars and scooters are powerful and aggressive there is no active and equally vocal lobby for public transportation.

As a result, we continue to encourage cars, use more petrol, be inefficient and quibble about prices. In all this, with the cost of oil increasing and less money for investment, there will be even less resources to invest into public systems.

The same is the case for the so-called fuel of the poor, diesel. The price hike will lead to increases in the price of everything, from mirchi to milk, say our leaders. But nobody says this is because we chose to transport everything by road-based vehicles, which run on diesel. Nobody says we need a national mission for railways because it can transport much more, using much less energy.

Instead, we do the opposite. The railway system is compromised today, emasculated and dismembered. Our dependence on truck-based transportation grows. In all this, we speak in the name of the poor.

So, prices of diesel are kept low by not using it to cross-subsidise other fuels like kerosene. But we act for the rich. The same diesel, which is reserved for the poor, is used by the rich in their cars. And nobody objects. It does not matter. It is cruel charade, as usual. Only this time, the joke is on us.