Despite rise in prices, the governments are holding on to high taxes

After holding out for quite some time, the Centre, last week, blinked and cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by ₹2 a litre. This was in response to growing public anger about the sharp increase in the prices of these fuels over the past few months. Critics wanted to know why petrol and diesel today cost almost the same as in mid-2014 when the price of crude oil has halved since mid-2014. They ...