It has been speculated that the price of petrol and diesel will go up like never before after the March 10th election results. The NDA government desisted from increasing fuel prices because the key State of Uttar Pradesh was going to the polls. It didn't want to antagonize the middle-class by further increasing the price of petrol.

As per journalist MK Venu, Indians should fasten their seatbelts now. "Brent has crossed $115 a barrel. Centre last aligned domestic fuel price to global crude at $75 on November 4 last year and held it there for the UP elections. Now a cumulative upward adjustment of 50% will be needed to diesel/petrol price," he says. This could mean that, in the worst-case scenario, petrol might cost Rs 150.

On his part, Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, has said that the government will make a decision in the best interests of the nation. "We will make sure that our energy requirements are met," he said, adding that it's not correct to say that the fuel prices have been put under control keeping in mind the elections.

The cost of crude oil has been going up due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the resultant sanctions imposed on Russia. US President Joe Biden has banned the import of energy from Russia into his country. This is expected to drive up the crude oil prices further because supply will be in shortage. There is a view that if countries like India say that they will not ban the import of energy from Russia, the oil prices may not go up much from the current prices in the middle and long term. "If India and/or China keep(s) buying oil from Russia, then I expect the US ban on oil purchases from Russia to have little to no impact on world oil price beyond the very short run," tweeted the economic commentator Devashish Mitra.