When taxi drivers heard that fuel prices were going to be raised, they were ecstatic. Finally, it was going to be easier to get petrol. Taxi drivers have been buying petrol from China on the black market at Rs 100 a litre, so they welcomed the price hike. But those who opposed the hike were only trying to transform the issue into a political one. There was no alternative to solving the fuel crisis except raising prices. To say that the fuel hike hits the poor hardest is an outright lie.

Almost 80 percent of the people use wood as their primary fuel source. In the villages, barely a litre of kerosene is used in a month. Almost 75 percent of kerosene is used by the rich, for heating water in five-star hotels and for industry.

Thus it is the rich who are hit hardest by the fuel hike, not the poor.
Why should those who don't use the product have to pay for the subsidy of those who do?