New fiscal will pinch the common man harder

For the common man already battling high inflation, the new fiscal will be tougher as virtually everything will be dearer in 13 big cities, where petrol and diesel will be costlier, while in the national capital they have to shell out Rs 30 more for cooking gas.

Besides, interest earners without PAN card will find their banks deducting tax at source (TDS) at double the rate at of up to 20 per cent.

Citizens will pay more for their cement bags in the southern and western regions. Cooking gas (LPG) cylinder in the national capital would cost Rs 310 instead of Rs 281.20 earlier as the result of the Delhi government's decision to partly withdraw subsidy on it.

Incidentally, on the first day of the the new financial year, the government data showed that higher milk and pulses prices drove food inflation up to 16.35 per cent for the week ended March 20, indicating that the overall inflation would touch double digits soon.

Petrol and diesel prices, which went up by Rs 2.67 a litre and Rs 2.58 a litre, following levies in Budget, further rose by 50 paise in 13 cities on account of shifting to cleaner Bhart IV fuel, which will have a cascading effect on prices.

Petrol prices in Delhi have gone up by 50 paise to Rs 47.93 per litre and diesel by 26 paise to Rs 38.10 a litre.

The cities using environment friendly fuel are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Surat, Ahmedabad, Pune and Sholapur.

The car manufacturers, including Hyundai Motor India, Toyota and General Motors, have hiked the prices by up to Rs 30,000, depending on the model.

According to sources in the Cement Manufacturers Association, prices have gone up by Rs 20-40 per bag of 50 kg in south India, whereas in the western region they have been moved up by Rs 2-5 per bag.

However, in the northern and eastern region cement prices remained stable. On top of these increases, the possibility of interest and cost hikes loom large for home buyers. Service tax proposed in the Budget on housing complexes under construction would be imposed with passing of the Finance Bill 2010.

With the RBI tightening the money policy, the interest rates are expected to harden too. "From the second quarter of this financial year... situation of very comfortable liquidity that we are living in today may not be there," ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar said.

The RBI is set to review monetary policy on April 20. Steel makers, which had raised prices immediately after the Budget by Rs 600 a tonne, are expected to increase rates further due to higher input cost, industry sources said.