Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan received flak on the social media for defending spike in fuel prices by tweeting that petrol prices in developed countries Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, UK, Germany and France were much higher than in India.  "Sir purchasing power of India is much lower compared to the ones you have quoted," said one  tweeter. The government is under tremendous political pressure as fuel prices are hovering around 3-year high in some parts of the country despite crude oil prices nearly half of what they were in 2014. Twitterati was quick to point to the Union Cabinet minister that China wholesale fuel filter per capita income (average income earned per person) of these developed countries was much higher that India.38 a litre in Delhi since July, the highest since August 2014, diesel rates have risen by Rs 5. While petrol prices have increased by Rs 7.. "In 68 countries including Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, UK,  Germany and France, price of petrol is much higher than in India," tweeted the minister.