Energy crisis reaches India as Modi urges public to cut fuel use

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged the public to reduce petrol and diesel consumption amid supply disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East.

Addressing a crowd in the southern state of Telangana, Modi said: “We must reduce our consumption of petrol and diesel.”

He urged people to use public transport wherever possible, utilize metro in cities with metro lines and adopt car-sharing to reduce fuel consumption.

Modi also called for the return of energy-saving measures followed during the COVID-19 pandemic, including working from home, online conferences and virtual meetings.

The prime minister also urged citizens to postpone unnecessary overseas travel, including destination weddings, and avoid non-essential gold purchases for at least a year to ease pressure on foreign exchange reserves, saying India must conserve foreign currency as global fuel prices continue to rise.

Indian Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said oil-importing companies had suffered revenue losses to ensure uninterrupted energy supplies.

He added that the companies were losing around 120 million dollars daily by not raising petroleum product prices, noting that government losses after cutting taxes on diesel and petrol had reached about 1.6 billion dollars in a single month.

Puri also urged citizens to turn Modi’s appeal into a mass movement to save and conserve energy.