High inflation coupled with skyrocketing food prices and the latest additional burden of rise in fuel prices including cooking gas is all set to make life miserable for the common man. As the price of petrol and diesel and non-subsidised liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) were hiked across the country on Tuesday, petrol and diesel retailing prices were risen to ₹107.23 per litre and ₹94.32 per litre, respectively, in the state capital, while the price of LPG has been raised by ₹50 per cylinder to ₹959 for a 14.2-kg cylinder in Thiruvananthapuram. The 19 kg commercial cylinder will cost ₹ 2,018 in the capital.
The rise in the price of fuel and cooking gas prices, especially petrol and diesel will have a rippling effect on the price of essential commodities. Already, the price of certain essential items have been ruling high in the State for the past few months and the latest surge in fuel prices is likely to aggravate the situation. The price trends being prepared by the Department of Economics and Statistics, underscores the fact that the retail price of most of the essential commodities has been showing a steady increase in the State for the past one year.
Sudhakaran, K, a hotelier on the outskirts of the city, said “I have been running a small eatery here where I used to net a revenue of around ₹4,000-4,500 per day. But there is a rise of around ₹500 in my input costs in the recent days which literally affected the running of my shop as I employ one helper to run the show. Now to cope with the situation, I stopped using coconut oil and switched to palmoil among other things, as hiking the rate of food items in proportion to the rise in input costs is not feasible in the present milieu,” he said.
