Is price rise of petrol free of Government control?

It is untrue for Union government to claim that it has freed fixation of oil-prices to oil-companies when oil-companies continued to bear heavy losses by deferring price-increase of petrol till announcement of results of recently held assembly-elections on 13th May 2011. Real fact is that Union government has indirect control on prices of petroleum-products. As such, Union government is duty-bound to take effective measures to check ever-increasing prices of petroleum products especially in recession-hit trade-activities of present time.

1. Large overheads and publicity-budget should be curtailed by merger of all public-sector oil-companies in one unified company.
2. Discounts on petrol purchased by affluent class through credit-cards should be abolished. A recent RTI response reveals that HPCL encourages more purchase of petrol because credit-card users usually get their tanks full by swap of credit-cards.
3. Meeting of finance-ministers from all states should be convened for uniform tax-structure (local and central) to have uniform net consumer-prices of petroleum products throughout the country.
4. Price so calculated should be rounded to next complete rupee in case of petrol, diesel, kerosene and CNG, while in case of cooking-gas, it should be rounded off to next ten-rupees. This rounding-off can result in increased earnings for oil-companies.
5. Only branded petrol and diesel should be sold initially in urban areas, and then throughout the country on all retail-outlets.
6. Since government is the largest consumer of oil-products, only small cars with low fuel consumption should be allowed to be purchased in public-sector. Even financing on cars by public-sector financial institutions should only be for small cars to promote cars with low fuel-consumption.

7. New-look translucent LPG cylinders made of fibre-glass ensuring tamperproof full-load supply of LPG gas per cylinders should replace old iron-cylinders with one time replacement-cost rather than charging rupees 300 extra for every re-fill.