This is perhaps the first time that retail prices in India are higher than the global rates
If diesel subsidy can be confined to the running of public transport vehicles and agricultural pump sets, then it will stop benefiting private car owners and sundry other unintended recipients.
Diesel price was on Monday hiked by 50 paise per litre, excluding VAT, with effect from midnight tonight.
Global oil prices have slumped and India has access to larger amounts of discounted Russian crude oil, yet refiners are not passing on their savings to consumers
The company powered its ecoDemonstrator 787 flight test airplane on December 2 with a blend of 15 per cent green diesel and 85 per cent petroleum jet fuel in the left engine.
With the losses incurred by oil marketing companies (OMC's) on selling regulated fuels below their market prices (under-recoveries) reaching alarming levels, an urgent corrective action, like hiking the price of diesel, has become imperative, says a Crisil study.
Petrol price is to go up by 30 paisa per litre, diesel by 18 paisa as government decides to hike petrol pump dealers commission.
At a time when diesel-powered vehicles have been driving sales in the country's otherwise sluggish automobile market, the industry has been hit by a double whammy.
While the technology developed by the University of Exeter, with support from Shell, still faces many significant commercialisation challenges, the diesel, produced by special strains of E coli bacteria is almost identical to conventional diesel fuel.
Petrol and diesel prices were on Wednesday hiked by 24-25 paise per litre, the steepest increase since July 5 Union Budget, as a fallout of turmoil in global oil markets following drone attacks on Saudi Arabian crude oil facilities.
Diesel price hike is a tough decision and we need lot of tough decisions to get to 8 per cent growth rate," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh told reporters.
The government on Monday hiked special additional excise duty on crude petroleum to Rs 7,100 per tonne with effect from August 15. In the last fortnightly review, windfall tax on domestically produced crude oil was set at Rs 4,250 per tonne.
OMCs are currently incurring daily under-recovery of Rs 230 crore.
India will not tailor its policies to suit US EV maker Tesla, and its laws and tariff rules will be formulated to attract all-electric vehicle manufacturers from across the world to set up a base in the world's fastest-growing economy, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. Tesla has been seeking an initial tariff concession that would allow it to offset 70 per cent customs duty for cars priced less than $40,000, and 100 per cent for cars of higher value.
Diesel is 40 per cent cheaper than petrol and some of the diesel cars are 30 per cent more fuel efficient as compared to their petrol variant.
Petrol and diesel prices are likely to be cut by close to Re 1 per litre this weekend on sliding global oil rates.
Amongst cars sold in the mid-size category (domestic sales) between April 2007 and March 2008, diesel variants outsold petrol car models roughly in the ratio of 7:3. That means over 70 per cent of the over 1,79,493 mid-size cars sold in the domestic markets were diesel models. Diesel mid-size cars on an average are priced 15.5 per cent more than the petrol variant. Overall, the mid-size category, petrol and diesel models included, grew by 14.6 per cent.
The ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict has disrupted India's efforts to gain from a recent fall in crude oil prices. Since Hamas' invasion of southern Israel on October 7, petroleum has become costlier by around $5 per barrel, threatening to stoke prices and impact growth. Brent crude was trading at $89.8 per barrel on October 9 (9.15 pm IST), up over 4 per cent, thwarting India's anticipation of a period of declining oil prices - after the leading global petroleum benchmark declined by around 11 per cent last week.
Country's largest car maker Maruti Udyog Ltd today said it would come out with a diesel variant of one of its existing models by the end of next year equipped with engine from its diesel plant in Maneshar in Haryana.
The Finance Ministry on Thursday expressed hope that domestic diesel prices will soon become market linked in the backdrop of softening global crude oil rates.
Lower fuel subsidy payouts might restrict gross fiscal deficit in FY15.
This is the second hike in diesel price this month.
The discount will be by way of cash back which will be credited to the buyer's account in three days from the transaction
Union excise duty collection dropped 18 per cent in August year-on-year at a time when the overall central tax kitty rose about 94 per cent before devolution to the states. The mop-up from Union excise duty declined to Rs 23,576 crore in August this year compared to Rs 28,816 crore in the same month a year ago. On the other hand, total tax collection rose to Rs 2.9 trillion in the month as against Rs 1.5 trillion in August 2022-23, shows the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).
Industry experts said the scandal could hit VW hard, just as it was emerging from a damaging leadership battle.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who released BJP's manifesto for the legislative assembly polls, said a committee would be constituted on UCC.
India's crude oil imports from Russia fell for a second straight month in January to its lowest in 12 months but the nation's insatiable appetite for Russian crude remains for the long term, according to data from energy cargo tracker and industry officials. Russia supplied 1.2 million barrels per day of crude oil to India in January, down from 1.32 million barrels in December and 1.62 million barrels in November 2023, according to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa. Russia however continues to remain India's top oil supplier, accounting for a little less than a quarter of 4.91 million barrels a day of oil that the world's third largest energy consumer imported in January.
Petrol, that had in April/May witnessed 11-12 per cent growth in consumption, in fact saw a six per cent fall in demand at 8,02,500 tons in June, oil ministry officials said.
Petrol prices on Thursday crossed Rs 73 a litre mark, the highest level since the BJP government came to power in 2014, while diesel touched a record high of Rs 64.11 a litre.
The BJP-led government had raised excise duty nine times between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell, but then cut the tax just once in October last year by Rs 2 a litre.
Amid rising air pollution caused by the burning of crop residue, the Bihar government has decided to identify farmers who are indulging in this practice and put up their names at the block offices, officials said on Saturday.
The surprise decision of OPEC and its allies, including Russia, to cut oil output may cause an immediate rise in prices, delaying revision in fuel prices in India, industry sources said. The grouping of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, called OPEC+, on Sunday decided to further cut oil output by around 1.16 million barrels. The move led to Brent rising by almost 6 per cent to $84.58 per barrel on Monday.
After today's reduction, petrol price has been cut by Rs 12.27 per litre cumulatively since August.
Officials from State-run refiners contend that savings from purchase of Russian oil are used to offset a part of the losses in revenues from selling transport fuels and LPG at State-set rates.
Under-recovery or the gap between retail selling price and the cost of import, this month dipped to an all-time low of 8 paise a litre, helped by the monthly increases and softening in international oil rates.
The demand for diesel is rising at 25 per cent annually, while the crude oil refiners are capable of catering to only 12-15 per cent growth.
The iconic brand is considering petrol powertrains for its entire Indian portfolio, which includes the Jeep Compass, Meridian, Grand Cherokee and Wrangler.
Japanese major's idea part of strategy to double sales in emerging markets by 2017.
A graphic showing how the average prices for petrol and diesel have moved over the last ten years.