Ahead of the much anticipated meeting of a high power panel of ministers, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Friday said his ministry has made no specific proposal on increasing auto and cooking fuel prices.
An empowered group of ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, which decides on revising rates of the sensitive products, has not met since June last year even though crude oil prices have spiralled upward by about 50 per cent.
Empowered group of ministers on fuel pricing was likely to meet soon.
The ban on onion export is temporary and will be reviewed every two weeks until its prices decline below Rs 15 per kg.
With global crude oil prices climbing to their highest level in two-and-a-half years, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Friday said a ministerial panel will take a call on raising petrol and diesel prices.
This is the tenth hike in the price of petrol in just over a year. With this hike, inflation is likely to rise sharply once again.
The empowered group of ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is being convened soon to discuss a combination of a price hike and a reduction in government duties.
A week after the steep hike in petrol prices by Rs 5 a litre, the government on Monday said a ministerial panel is likely to meet in the next few days to take a decision on raising diesel, LPG and kerosene rates.
A hike in diesel and domestic LPG prices has been deferred for now, but an increase in petrol prices later this week looks imminent.
A Rs 3-4 a litre hike in the price of petrol, which had been freed from government control last June, is also on the cards immediately after polling in the last phase of Assembly elections is completed on May 10.
The EGoM was originally scheduled to meet on Wednesday but has been deferred because of non-availability of certain ministers in the grouping.
The vacation of additional 2G and 3G spectrum may generate additional revenue of about Rs 80,000 crore (Rs 800 billion) on the basis of prices according to spectrum auctioned last year, DoT said in a note for the empowered group of ministers.
Petrol price will go up Rs 3.73 a litre if the domestic prices are aligned with international rates.
An Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is likely to meet on May 21 to decide on freeing petrol and diesel prices from government control.
Government has approved follow-on public offer of Power Finance Corporation worth Rs. 5,732 crore.
The government expects to raise up to Rs 12,000-15,000 crore (Rs 120-150 billion) through Coal India IPO, billed as the country's largest ever.
Oil Minister Murli Deora on Wednesday said his ministry is not in favour of raising diesel and domestic LPG prices as response to spurt in global crude oil prices, as the move will add to already high inflation rate.
The empowered group of ministers on fuel pricing is to meet this week to take a view on the price of diesel.
State-owned oil firms have seen their losses on diesel sales widen to over Rs 6 per litre, even as a ministerial panel meeting on raising prices has not yet been scheduled.
It is pertinent to mention that the ministry of defence had agreed to vacate the spectrum only during middle of this year.
The decision had been communicated to the department of telecommunications, a senior official of the department told Business Standard.
The empowered group of ministers, headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, met in New Delhi to finalise the notice inviting applications from the potential operators to participate in the forthcoming auctioning for 3G spectrum.
After natural gas prices, the government looks set to bite the bullet on auto fuel prices, with a panel of ministers scheduled to meet on June 7 to decide on freeing petrol and diesel prices.
With the government making a distinction between the privately-run Reliance Natural Resources Ltd and the government-run NTPC Ltd in relation with the gas dispute with Reliance Industries Ltd, the ministry of power is likely to take up NTPC's case with the Empowered Group of Ministers.
Instead of the original plan of auctioning four 3G licences per circle, bundled with 5 MHzs of spectrum per licence, the schedule will depend on spectrum availability in each circle.
National estimates of the percentage of the population falling below the poverty line are based on surveys of sub-groups, with the results weighted by the number of people in each group.
The empowered group of ministers, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on July 27, is likely to discuss setting priority for usage of the gas that is likely to be available in next five years, two sources privy to the development said.
The calculations done on June 25 were mostly based on the average international price in the first fortnight of June.
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) may go with Oil Minister Murli Deora's proposal to free petrol prices from government control, which would trigger a hike of Rs 3.73 a litre, official sources said.
The ministerial panel is now likely to meet on June 24 or 25.
A decision on the legal right of the poor to get wheat or rice at Rs 3 per kg was deferred on Thursday as Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar could not attend the meeting of a panel of ministers on the Food Security Bill on health grounds.
When Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee entered the Committee Room in North Block for the empowered group of ministers' meeting on fuel price hike on Monday, he found Communications Minister A Raja already sitting there.
After the empowered group of ministers' meeting on the 3G spectrum auction, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was surrounded by journalists.
The EGoM is to consider fixing users for about 50 million cubic meters per day of KG-D6 gas, official sources said. This is in addition to the initial 40 mmscmd output that was previously distributed primarily to urea and power plants.
The Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee has cleared the Food Security Bill, paving the way for Right to food to be made a fundamental right backed by legal provision. The bill is strongly supported by Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
With huge stocks and a possible record output this year, the Centre will soon take a decision whether to allow export of wheat, which was banned in early 2007, Food And Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said here on Thursday
Even as the freeze on all decisions and notifications for fresh special economic zones continues, the government on Friday gave its nod for authorised operations in 30 notified SEZs, while granting co-developer status to five zones.
There are opportunities to repeat the success of NTP '99 with 3G and Broadband Wireless Access, says Shyam Ponappa.
The government holds 89.5 per cent stake in NTPC and it plans to dilute five per cent stake constituting 41.22 crore (412.2 million) shares through its proposed FPO.
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