Commercial LPG Jumped ₹993. So Did the Price of Dhokla.

On May 1, petrol did not get a rupee costlier. The commercial gas cylinder did, by ₹993. The farsan shop near my house had to decide who pays.

Two prices, two policies

On May 1, the price of a 19 kg commercial LPG cylinder in Delhi rose by ₹993 to ₹3,071.50. Prices in Gujarat moved by similar amounts. On the same day, petrol, diesel and household LPG prices stayed frozen. The government and the oil marketing companies have chosen to shield ordinary consumers from the war’s oil shock, absorbing large losses, while passing the full cost on to businesses.

The farsan shop near our house in Anand uses about one commercial cylinder every three days for frying and steaming. The owner, who has run it for twenty years, said the new price adds roughly ₹10,000 to his monthly costs. That is a lot for a shop that sells dhokla at ₹200 a kilo.

Who pays the ₹993

A business facing a cost increase has three options. It can raise prices, accept lower profits, or find a cheaper way to do the same work. He did a bit of each. Dhokla went up by ₹20 a kilo. He began steaming larger batches less often to save gas. And he accepted that his earnings this summer would be lower than last year.

This is why the inflation figures for restaurants and snacks have been rising faster than fuel prices. Petrol looks calm because it is being held down. The cost of the war has not disappeared. It has been moved to places where it is less visible, like the price of eating out and the losses on oil companies’ balance sheets, which eventually the government may have to make up.

Is this fair?

There is a reasonable argument for the policy. Household budgets are tight, and a sudden jump in petrol or cooking gas would hit the poorest hardest. Businesses can spread costs across many customers. But small food businesses are often run by families on thin margins, and their customers include students and workers on modest incomes who eat out because they have no other option.

I do not think there is a perfectly fair way to split an oil shock. Someone pays, whether it is the motorist, the taxpayer, the oil company or the farsan shop. What I learned from this is to look past the headline price. When a government says it has kept prices stable, it is worth asking where the cost went instead.