SURGING OIL PRICES- HAPPY, HAPPIER AND THE HAPPIEST
OIL PRICE HIKES--HAPPY PRODUCERS, HAPPIER OIL COMPANIES, HAPPIEST THE GOVERNMENTS THAT EARN HUGE REVENUES BY DUTIES AND TAXES.
Coming to the surging Oil prices one should admit that the chief reason for the surge is not demand supply equilibrium but the political tensions world over. Lack of appropriate leadership to tackle the tensions and issues is only aggravating the situation leading to the misery of peoples all over the world. The world leaders should do more to defuse the tensions. Most recent example is the Iranian Nuclear Issue. Recent past events like Iraqi Issue,
The Afghanistan Issue, the Kuwait Issue, the perennial Middle East issues and disputes led to the Oil Price hikes on the basis of energy security fears. It is the failure of leadership of the nations of the world that is responsible for the increase in oil prices. The surge in the Oil prices makes the Oil producing nations Happy with bulging Oil revenues. However their scare reserves get depleted as the demand surges. Still they are a happy lot.
The Oil traders/Merchants/Oil companies that store and process the crude leverage the political tensions to their benefit and jack up the prices. So they are the HAPPIER. They don’t own the Oil reserves but profit from rising Oil prices. They lose nothing.
The HAPPIEST of the lot appear to be the Governments of Oil importing nations. Without doing any thing, the surge in oil prices result in automatic increase in oil revenues since the duties and taxes are levied as a percentage of the Oil products like petrol, diesel.
Oil/petrol/gas are important for the daily life of citizens over the world. Without it their mobility gets affected. Without mobility citizens’ earnings suffer. So they pay through the nose what ever the price of oil/gas to fill the tanks of their cars. They pay higher electricity charges. They bear higher air/rail/bus fares.
While some governments are moderate in the oil tax regime, some governments levy very high taxes and duties. It looks like for example in countries like NETHERLANDS, FRANCE, BRITAN, ISRAEL, INDIA etc appear to be collecting about 50% as oil tax revenues from the end users. US is comparatively better in oil tax regime. The only country in the world that produces oil and gas and sells it to the user on the basis of cost of production + is Venezuela where petrol/gas is said to be sold for a measly 2 cents a liter. Even on the basis of Crude prices hovering around 70US$, per barrel,+reasonable levies by governments+ the transport costs + refining margins+retail commissions and reasonable profits should result in a price of not more than 70 US cents per liter of petrol/ gas. Any thing above 70 cents per liter where ever be it in the world, is simply not justified.
Governments over the world that levy excessive duties and taxes on Oil and Petroleum products break the back of the common man and the end user should ponder and try to mitigate the suffering by reducing the levies and provide relief to the needy citizens.
If the Governments that levy excessive duties and taxes on Oil and petroleum products refuse to budge and continue with the high tax regimes, the effects will soon show up in economic slow down, increased unemployment, social unrest and host of other problems. So I appeal to the Happiest Governments that levy the highest duties and taxes on Oil/Petroleum products to share their happiness with the citizens by bringing down the levies and taxes, and provide relief to the common citizens.
. Even on the basis of Crude prices hovering around 70US$, per barrel,+reasonable levies by governments+ the transport costs + refining margins+retail commissions and reasonable profits should result in a price of 70 US cents per liter of petrol/ gas. Any thing above 70 cents per liter where ever be it in the world is not justified. If the Governments that levy excessive duties and taxes on Oil and petroleum products refuse tobudge and continue with the high tax regimes, the effects will soon show up in economic slow down, increased unemployment, social unrest and host of other problems. So I appeal to the Happiest Governments that levy the highest duties and taxes on Oil/Petroleum products to share their happiness with the citizens by bringing down the levies and taxes on petroleum products. It may be difficult to follow the example of Venezuela where petrol is cheaper than bottled water. But the nations that levy highest taxes and earn high oil revenues must bring down the taxes to moderate levels so that citizens are not doubly hurt by the rising Oil prices in the world market and the higher taxes on petroleum products.
Besides, the leaders the world over who can soothe the political tensions, must make whole hearted and serious efforts to defuse the political tensions so that Oil prices will be regulated by demand supply equilibrium and not dictated by geo political tensions.
Such steps will make the suffering citizens world over HAPPY. Happy citizens MAKE HAPPY NATIONS.