NewDelhi: As inflationary pressures and supply side concerns have eclipsed major economies around the world, India too is preparing for the impending shock. Government offices, institutions and other services have also echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for maintaining national austerity amid the ongoing West Asia conflict.
Amidst tightening of screw around essential commodities like milk and sugar, murmurs are doing the rounds whether next in pipeline is hiking of fuel prices.
RBI Governor on fuel price hike
RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra has now said that he soaring cost of crude oil in the global market doesn’t seem to be leaving any room for price stagnation. He added if the conflict in Middle East continues, Indian government may be forced to hike petrol and diesel prices.
Governor Malhotra’s statement comes ahead of RBI’s next monetary policy meeting, scheduled for June 5.
India has 60 days of crude, 60 days of LNG and 45 days of LPG
Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said in a CII Annual Summit that India has 60 days of crude, 60 days of LNG, and 45 days of LPG. He added government has handled the energy supply disruptions by putting minimum burden on people.
However, the Petroleum reckoned that oil marketing companies are losing Rs 1,000 crore every day and the under recovery is going to be Rs 1,98,000 crore.
Puri also highlighted that the government has not hiked prices in last four years.
“If I remember correctly, we haven’t raised prices for the last four years. We’re the only country in the world. Somebody said, ‘the elections are over, now the price will rise.’ 2022 was the last time we raised prices. There has been a general election in 2024, and there have been elections in the state government. It’s not that prices will not go up. I’m saying the two are unrelated,” he added.
Milk prices hiked by Rs 2 per litre
Starting today May 14, people will pay more for Amul milk. India’s largest dairy cooperative, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), announced a nationwide increase of Rs two per litre in the prices of Amul fresh milk.
The latest price hikes comes almost a year after, Amul had last hiked milk prices in April 2025. The previous revision in Amul milk prices was announced on April 30, 2025 and came into effect from May 1, 2025, when GCMMF raised prices by Rs 2 per litre across variants, citing higher production and operational costs.
Mother Dairy has also announced a nationwide hike of Rs 2 per litre across its key liquid milk variants, effective May 14.
Govt, silver import duty hiked from 6% to 15%
The centre on May 13 announced a hike in customs duties on gold and silver. Import duty on the precious metals have been hiked from 6 percent to 15 percent. With this move, government aims to contain pressure on India’s foreign exchange reserves. The revised duty on platinum imports has been raised from 6.4 percent to 15.4 percent.
According to official changes, the revised structure imposes a 10 per cent basic customs duty along with a 5 per cent Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC) on gold and silver imports, taking the effective import tax to 15 percent.
Sugar export prohibited till September 30
Govt has prohibited exports of sugar till 30 September 2026 or until further orders in a bid to maintain domestic availability and containing local prices. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) — under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry — has issued a notification amending the export policy for sugar. According to the notification, the export status of raw sugar, white sugar and refined sugar has been changed from ‘Restricted’ to ‘Prohibited’.
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