Citizens of Mumbai now pay twice as much for gasoline as a citizen of New York City, Bloomberg has reported , with prices at the pump up 11 percent since the start of the year in India’s most populous city. The price rise, however, has not got much to do with the latest trends in international oil prices, according to the report. It rather has to do with a series of increases in the sales tax, which, Bloomberg says, the government applied in an attempt to prop up public finances. Since 2013, the sales tax on gasoline and diesel has risen almost six times and currently makes up about 60 percent of the end-price of the fuels. Gasoline and diesel account for more than 50 percent of India’s total oil consumption. Prices at the pump are rising even though state refiners expected demand for gasoline to take a major […]