Sitharaman raised excise duty and road and infrastructure cess on the auto fuels by Rs 2 per litre each to raise over Rs 28,000 crore.
BSE Smallcap index outperformed the frontline indices to rise 0.6%, while the BSE Midcap was flat
Despite a massive decline in crude oil prices since 2012 -- Modi has been prime minister in six of these eight years -- petrol in Delhi has become 10 per cent costlier and diesel 97 per cent, as of July 2.
On Tuesday, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan met Russian oil giant Rosneft's chief executive officer Igor Sechin and discussed raising crude imports from that country, in addition to talks about going for more acquisitions.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the Budget for 2021-22 in the Lok Sabha that is expected to provide relief to the pandemic-hit common man as well as focus more on driving economic recovery through higher spending on healthcare, infrastructure and defence amid rising tensions with neighbours, As India emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the ninth Budget under the Modi government, including an interim one, is widely expected to focus on boosting spending on job creation and rural development, generous allocations for development schemes, putting more money in the hands of the average taxpayer and easing rules to attract foreign investments.
State-owned fuel retailers, which last week raised petrol price by Rs 1.80 per litre, reported a net loss of over Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) in July-September quarter and are borrowing heavily to even buy crude oil.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Getting compensated for at least 90 per cent of losses without government subsidy appears difficult.
Oil companies choose to skip the revision this time.
At present, India has 56,999 fuel outlets. Of those, only 6,276 are owned by private companies
Low oil prices drove the growth in states' share faster than expected, says Abhishek Waghmare.
The government has ordered Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to pay a near-record Rs 13,764 crore as fuel subsidy for the December quarter, a move that will dent the firm's profitability.
Private carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher owed over Rs 1,050 crore (Rs 10.50 billion) to the public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) like Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL towards the payment of jet-fuel bills as on November 15.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) on Tuesday said it is losing about Rs 3 on the sale of every litre of petrol, but will decide on raising prices at an "appropriate" time.
HPCL holds 50 per cent in Prize Petroleum while ICICI Bank has 35 per cent, ICICI Ventures 10 per cent and HDFC Bank 5 per cent.
While divestment through IPOs saw an over 90 per cent drop as compared to the previous financial year, the exchange traded fund (ETF) route proved to be a shot in the arm for the government, reports Sundar Sethuraman.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) on Tuesday hiked petrol prices by about Rs 2.96 a litre effective midnight tonight, and other state-owned oil companies IOC and HPCL will follow suit on Wednesday.
While the Saudi drone strike has put the focus back on anti-drone measures, caution also stems from the fact that India has a number of large oil refining assets close to India-Pakistan border.
State-owned fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL are likely to lose Rs 65,000 crore on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost during the current fiscal, Oil Minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday.
Indian Oil Corporation, the nation's largest fuel retailer, is likely to hike petrol prices by Rs 0.33 per litre from Tuesday. IOC Chairman B M Bansal said international crude oil prices have risen since the last price revision, necessitating an increase in domestic retail prices.
Liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Wednesday met Oil Secretary S Sundareshan to discuss defaults by his group firm Kingfisher Airlines on payment of jet fuel bills, but did not say when he will clear the outstanding of Rs 176 crore (Rs 1.76 bilion).
Estimated to cost $44 billion, the project was expected to be commissioned by 2025.
The fire was brought under control after three hours, a Mumbai Fire Brigade official said, adding that cooling operations were underway.
Oil prices have declined by more than 60 per cent since January with benchmark crude falling well below $30 per barrel, driven by an acute oil demand decline caused by the coronavirus and a lack of production cuts by OPEC and other oil producing countries.
The company, which has successfully commissioned the 'open access' fuel storage system for the first time in the country at Bangalore International Airport, has submitted its expression of interest for the projects. Currently, IOC, HPCL and BPCL are providing fuel storage services at Mumbai and Delhi airports.
The Petroleum Ministry on Wednesday sought over Rs 19,620 crore (Rs 196.20 billion) in compensation for state retailers Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and HPCL, which sold cooking fuels below cost in 2009-10 fiscal.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The Union oil ministry is considering a proposal to adopt differential pricing for diesel, under which industrial users like power utilities, will be charged market prices and retail consumers continue to be subsidised.
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Investment can only be by prospective dealers.
Indian Oil Corporation on Tuesday said it may lose over Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in revenues this fiscal on selling fuel below imported cost.
Credit card payments to buy fuel at petrol pumps will from October 1 not get a 0.75 per cent discount that State-owned oil companies had introduced more than two-and-a-half years back to promote digital payments.
Only 48.3 per cent of the rural households used LPG, while the figures were much higher in urban areas at 86.6 per cent, according to a NSO report.
Kingfisher, Jet and state-owned Air owe Rs 4,000 crore to oil companies and airports. Dues to the Airports Authority of India, private airports and oil companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL were to have been cleared by March 31, under the government's mandate. Industry figures show that the three airlines are collectively projected to make operating losses of Rs 5,000 crore.
Minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Jitin Prasada in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said that IOC and MRPL have been allocated 0.20 million tonnes each in 2009-10, while HPCL would offtake 0.30 million tonnes of Rajasthan crude. In 2010-11, IOC would buy 1.5 million tonnes of the crude oil from the nation's most prolific oil discovery in more than two decades, while MRPL would double its offtake to 0.40 million tonnes.
The mid-cap index fell while small-cap advanced.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers queries on how to invest in stocks.
The strike by the oil company executives under the umbrella of the Oil Sector Officers Association has brought the country to a grinding halt with over 90 per cent of petrol pumps across the country running dry.
In a step towards dual pricing of domestic cooking gas, the government has decided to allow oil-marketing companies to sell the fuel at market prices in distinct fibreglass cylinders. IOC, BPCL and HPCL will sell these cylinders in Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune, which have been identified as test beds for the pilot project. The companies could revise fuel prices for transparent cylinders as LPG for them will not be subsidised. Feasibility of this project is yet to be adjudged.
The Union government will gain close to Rs 1.6 lakh crore in additional revenues this fiscal from a record hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel that has pushed the total incidence of taxation on auto fuels to 70 per cent of the price. Late on Tuesday evening, the government hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 13 a litre to mop up gains arising from international oil prices falling to a two-decade low.
The government's decision to raise fuel prices in June has scuttled the oil companies' plans to reduce their losses from retail fuel sales as consumers are buying less of premium fuels, which is more expensive than normal fuels.
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