When rivers meet the ocean, coastlines tend to bend outward, forming a delta. These deltas when looked from space present multifarious patterns.
Nile Delta
Nile: Formed in Northern part of Egypt where the Nile spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean, this is one the world’s largest river deltas.The delta is classified as an arcuate river delta which features many active, short distributaries that carry sediment to the oceanic mouths. As the sediment exits through many mouths, the waves push it back, making the coastline very smooth. The coastline extends from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east and covers 240 kilometers of the Mediterranean coastline. A very rich agricultural region, from north to south the delta is approximately 160 kilometers in length.
Sunderban Delta
Sundarban: Measuring about 40,000 sq km our very own Sundarban forms the largest river delta in the world, and is formed by the coalescing of two very large rivers – the Ganga and the Brahmaputra.This is an also arcuate river delta which features many active, short distributaries pushing heavy sediments to their mouths.There is a cluster of low-lying islands in the Bay of Bengal, spread across India and Bangladesh, famous for its unique mangrove forests and thriving wildlife.
Mississippi Delta
Mississippi: The river forms a bird-foot delta as it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. As the name suggest this delta is in the shape of a bird’s foot and tend to have one or a very few major distributaries near their mouths. The receiving basin has currents that carry the sediment away as it exits the distributaries mouth. There is a broad, shallow shelf that deepens abruptly, so the trend is to grow long and thin like a bird’s toe. The Mississippi delta is the seventh largest delta on earth and is an important coastal region for the United States, containing more than 2.7 million acres of coastal wetlands.
Tiber
Tiber: This Italian river forms cuspate delta before emptying into the Tyrrhenian Sea of the Mediterranean. This type of river delta, usually have one distributary emptying into a flat coastline with wave action hitting it head-on. This tends to push the sediment back on both sides of the mouth, with a ‘tooth’ growing out onto the shelf. Hence it is named cuspate. The Tiber Delta stretches over some 25 km and includes a delta plain region and a submerged fan. This Delta plain, located some 25 km west of Rome, is an area of great interest that enables the study of the relationships between natural environmental changes and human activity.
Seine
Seine: This river is the third-longest river in France, which emerges from the earth in a remote spot called Source-Seine, in the Burgundy wine region of northeastern France and forms a stark estuarine river delta that drains into the English Channel.
Endnote : River deltas are found almost everywhere in the world, wherever a sediment rich river empties its water into the sea. These river deltas not only supports a rich biodiversity but also adds up to the beauty of our earth.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.