The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned hearing till Friday on a petition challenging the decision of the government to divest its stake in oil PSUs HPCL and BPCL.
A Parliamentary Committee asked the government on Thursday to seek approval of Parliament before privatising oil refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd as the two were nationalised
The tankers carrying fuel from terminals to dealer outlets would not just have global positioning system (GPS) tracking but also an electronic key (e-key).
There is money to buy the central public sector enterprises, but buyers will need a firm assurance that the disvestment programme will keep environment issues front and centre of their corporate plans.
SBI Capital Markets Limited, the merchant banking arm of SBI, is eyeing the twin accounts of HPCL and BPCL for managing the divestment programmes of the 2 oil cos.
HPCL, BPCL shares may yield Rs 1000 cr bonanza for employees
The Congress Party on Monday strongly opposed the government's decision to divest stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation saying that hydrocarbon is part and parcel of the strategic sector.
Oil major ONGC is believed to have been kept out of the bidding process for the two oil PSUs.
The government will press ahead with its stalled privatisation programme and sell stakes in two refiners, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie said.
After the government sought Parliament's nod for a second batch of supplementary demand for grants that will cause a hit of Rs 2.99 trillion to the exchequer, doubts suddenly arose about the government's ability to meet the Budget projections of reining in its fiscal deficit at 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), or Rs 15.06 trillion, for the current financial year. Till now, many were of the opinion that the government would succeed in checking the deficit at a much lower figure than what was given in the Budget Estimates (BE). The government had sought Parliament's approval to spend Rs 3.74 trillion extra, but Rs 74,517.01 crore will be matched by equal savings on other heads.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cut fuel subsidies while slapping additional fuel taxes on unblended transport fuels in the latest Union Budget. The former will hit the rural poor, households that secured a subsidised LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a programme that was partly instrumental in helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the 2019 general elections. The latter will pretty much hurt the entire population after it kicks in from October. That's what it looks like. Or, perhaps, it's not as it appears to be, at least on the subsidy front.
A few years ago, when top officials of Indian state-run refiners went to Dubai to negotiate a crude oil supply contract, a senior official from state-owned Saudi Aramco told them, "We can negotiate on anything, but I am the last man standing for you. "Nobody can offer the range of crudes we do with certainty," an official who was part of the negotiating team recalls. Perhaps that explains why Saudi Arabia is less concerned about losing its place as India's premier oil supplier to an upstart like Russia, which emerged from nowhere to become India's biggest crude oil supplier in September and October.
Suryakumay Yadav has become the toast of Indian cricket
Mittal is in talks to take 20 per cent stake in state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's Rs 9,100 crore (Rs 91 billion), six million tons a year Bina refinery that is to be commissioned by 2010-11, industry sources said.
Petrol and diesel price soared to an all-time high across the country on Friday after rates were hiked again by 25 paise and 30 paise a litre, respectively. The price of petrol in Delhi rose it its highest ever level of Rs 101.89 a litre and to Rs 107.95 in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Diesel rates too touched a record high of Rs 90.17 in Delhi and Rs 97.84 in Mumbai.
Shell India, the domestic arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, had offered for sale 20 of its 80 operational retail outlets and around 20 sites acquired earlier for setting up such outlets.
Come December, India may have to re-evaluate purchases of Russian oil if a price cap on crude oil proposed by the US and the European Union (EU) comes into effect. That impacts nearly a quarter of India's oil purchases that come at a discount, helping limit marketing losses for India's state refiners and enabling New Delhi to manage inflation by freezing pump prices of motor fuels. In September, India imported 1 million barrels a day or 24 per cent of its overall imports from Russia, which became the biggest supplier of oil to India.
Diesel price on Friday was hiked by 20 paise per litre - the first increase in rates in over two months - as international oil prices neared their highest since 2018. Price of diesel was hiked to Rs 88.82 per litre in Delhi and to Rs 96.41 in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Petrol price was not changed. It costs Rs 101.19 a litre in Delhi and Rs 107.26 in Mumbai.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Thursday said Union Home Minister Amit Shah has given firm assurances at a meeting held in Delhi of acting on his request for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the 'firing by Assam Police' along the states' border.
Skills and democracy are the main drivers of sustainable growth, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said on Friday, adding that he is bullish on the Indian market. "If you examine history, democracy creates chaos and forces people to think and act. "Therefore, skills and democracy are the main drivers of sustainable growth...It is most needed..," Jhunjhunwala said at the 'India Today Conclave 2021'. On markets, he said he is inherently bullish and India is coming to a phase economically that it has never seen before.
Former oil secretary Tarun Kapoor, present and former chairmen of ONGC and a former director of IOC, are among over a dozen people who have applied for the top job at the oil and gas regulator, PNGRB, sources said. Kapoor, who superannuated as Secretary to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas last month, is the most prominent name in the list of 13 persons who have applied to become the chairman of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB). Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) chairman and managing director Subhash Kumar and his predecessor Shashi Shanker are also in the race and so is G K Satish, who superannuated as Director for Planning and Business Development from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) a couple of months back.
One worker died and three other workers were injured following a clash between a mob of workers and Central Industrial Security Force personnel at Brahmaputra Crackers and Polymers Limited at Lepetkata in Dibrugah district of eastern Assam on Friday.
Sri Lanka on Monday put off indefinitely a decision to sell off part of the state-run oil company to Bharat Petroleum as trade unions threatened to stop work, triggering panic buying at petrol stations across the country.
The government will press ahead with the sale of public sector companies that have been approved by the Cabinet, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday. Highlighting that FDI flow into India is much higher compared to other emerging economies, she said India's strong macroeconomic fundamentals, ability to do reforms and a stable government help attract long-term foreign funds into Indian businesses.
Air India sale will give a boost to India's privatisation drive, the Economic Survey said on Monday, as it suggested redefining the public sector role in business enterprises to encourage private participation in all sectors. The government earlier this month handed over ownership rights in national carrier Air India to Tata Group for Rs 18,000 crore. The amount includes the takeover of the debt burden of Rs 15,300 crore and another Rs 2,700 crore in cash.
The dreary, cold months from December to February may prove to be the undoing of many a nation as they grapple with sky-high fuel prices - a result of the Ukraine conflict and the pandemic. Many - Europe, South Korea, Japan, and China - will still pull through on the strength of their wealth or because of strong storage infrastructure. But India will have its back to the wall. Signs of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates hitting new records this winter are already evident.
The government is looking to sell shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) held through Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) and is soon going to appoint an intermediary to manage it. The plan is to sell about 8 lakh shares of RIL that will help the government garner around Rs 180 crore. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will appoint an intermediary that will act as a custodian of these shares. The intermediary, based on its market analysis, will offload these shares at the best price, said an official. A final approval on the proposal is expected soon.
Following up on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's Budget announcement of creating an integrated oil company, India's biggest oil and gas producer ONGC may buy all of the government's 51.11 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
The three state-owned oil companies have decided to defer snapping fuel supplies to Air India. The airline owes the three firms over Rs 5,000 crore in past fuel bills.
The divestment of HPCL and BPCL may be delayed by at least three years because of "existing hurdles", prime minister's economic advisory council committee member and BJP national executive member Jagdish Shetigar said on Thursday.
Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Delhi, rode on a fine hat-trick from Akashdeep Singh to trounce Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bangalore, 5-2, while Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Bangalore, struggled to overcome South Central Railway (SCR), Secunderabad 1-0 in the semi-finals on Friday.
The uptick in prices ranging from steel to wheat could benefit lots of commodity-based companies -- from State-owned SAIL to the agro exporters.
Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Union government and public sector oil majors Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation on a public interest litigation challenging the Centre's decision to privatise.
The government is believed to have zeroed in on DSP Merill Lynch for appointment as advisor and UBS and I-Sec as lead manager for the proposed public offer in Bharat Petroleum Corporation.
The divestment of government holding in Bharat Petroleum Corporation and National Aluminium Company would be undertaken simultaneously in the Indian and American markets, according to Communications and Divestment Minister Arun Shourie.
Concerned over growing resistance from the Opposition and some of the allies of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, the divestment ministry appears to have given up hopes of any big-ticket privatisation.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on a Public Interest Litigation challenging the legality of the government's decision to privatise public sector oil firms Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.
