Narendra Modi's landslide victory gives him the mandate to deregulate diesel prices as well as raise natural gas rates with a clear road map towards free pricing to cut subsidies and shrink the budget deficit.
The cancer-survivor looked like a rockstar.
Trinamool Congress, a key constituent of the United Progressive Alliance, on Thursday opposed the hike in diesel prices, saying it was not consulted about the step and demanded its rollback. "We were not consulted for this and we are unhappy with the decision to hike diesel prices," said Railway Minister Mukul Roy.
It is the end of the road for diesel taxis including those run by aggregators like Ola and Uber in Delhi and National Capital Region.
The government on Wednesday hiked the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG by Rs 5, Rs 3 and Rs 50 respectively.
Actual reduction in price will be more after taking into account local VAT.
Diesel and cooking gas (LPG) prices are unlikely to be hiked even after the end of the Monsoon Session of Parliament next week as the government is wary of taking such a decision at a time when it already has political battles on hand.
Deepika's Hollywood debut will hit the screens next year!
The National Green Tribunal has stayed ban on diesel car for two weeks.
PSUs to wait and watch, IndianOil says losing Rs 1.37 on every litre of petrol.
This is the second increase in rates of petrol this month while in case of diesel it wipes away a part of the hike effected earlier this month
Another factor that works in favour of diesel cars is its 'full-size' mileage, which falls easy on wallet.
Manufacturers that mainly sell diesel cars like Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen anticipate a significant fall in sales if the government accepts the Parikh committee's recommendation of a flat tax of Rs 80,000 on diesel cars, because of a widening cost differential with petrol variants.
Petrol price was on Monday hiked by Rs 2.19 a litre and diesel by 98 paise per litre.
The government has asked SIAM members, to provide fresh data which will provide an indication about the diesel vehicle demand in the country.
The Maharashtra government has reduced sales tax on diesel from 34 per cent to 25 per cent.
Buoyed by the peace initiatives between the two countries, Pakistan on Tuesday expressed willingness to import diesel from India.
Since end-May there has been volatility in the foreign exchange market.
India is the second largest buyer of Iranian crude, after China.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp wants diesel prices to be freed from government control before its twin follow-on public offersto raise maximum funds, company Chairman B M Bansal said on Monday.
DRDO's failures over the decades have contributed significantly to India becoming the world's biggest weapons importer, points out Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
This is the third reduction in rates this month
The fall in international oil prices had resulted in six consecutive reduction in petrol prices since August and two in diesel in the last one month and there was possibility of another round of cuts this weekend.
Ahead of assembly polls in states like Rajasthan and Delhi, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday said his ministry is mulling withdrawing the order that made it mandatory for state public transport utilities to buy diesel at market price.
The decision to decrease VAT on diesel from 20 per cent to 12.5 per cent was taken at a cabinet meeting today presided over by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
The company said despite the recession in global markets, it has invested over Euro 3 billion (Rs 20,000 crore) in 2009 particularly in developing technologies for the low- priced vehicles to improve fuel efficiency.
About 2,000 petrol pumps, mostly in western and northern India, have run out of fuel stocks as the strike by some truckers' associations entered the second day on Tuesday.
Major carmakers like Maruti Suzuki and Honda did not have diesel technology and it is in the last 3-4 years that they invested in diesel vehicles owing to shift in demand towards such models
The stock of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has been touching successive all-time highs on the bourses and, over the past year, gained 81 per cent. While the S&P BSE Auto Index has not performed poorly, registering gains of 73 per cent, it still trails the company by 800 basis points (bps) during this period. There are multiple reasons why investors are beating a path to M&M's counter.
Oil Ministry felt it did not have a clear mandate to reduce rates post the January 2013 decision of the Cabinet to raise prices by 40-50 paisa a litre every month.
The government freed diesel pricing last October, providing a level playing field to private companies like Reliance and Essar Oil.
Tata Motors will launch a diesel-powered version of its ultra-cheap Nano by the end of March 2014, its managing director said, hoping to kick-start demand for the model after years of disappointing sales.
This is the fourth increase in auto fuel prices since May 1
"There is no immediate plan to decontrol diesel or LPG as they have cascading effect (on general prices)," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
Under-recovery or revenue loss on diesel has risen to Rs 10.48 per litre from Rs 9.99 a litre in the first fortnight of December, an official statement said in New Delhi.
Move likely to be rolled back atleast for state transport undertakings
Domestic rating agency Icra on Monday revised its FY24 GDP growth forecast to 6.5 per cent from 6.2 per cent earlier. However, the revised forecast is still much lower than the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) 7 per cent real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth estimate for the ongoing fiscal. Earlier this month, the RBI had revised upwards its GDP estimate to 7 per cent from 6.5 per cent, calling the revised number a "conservative" one.
Jet fuel or ATF price on Tuesday was hiked by a steep 8.5 per cent - the second increase in a month, while commercial cooking gas rate was cut by Rs 100 per cylinder in line with divergent trends in international benchmarks. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price was increased by 7,728.38 per kilolitre, or 8.5 per cent, in the national capital to Rs 98,508.26 per kl, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Rates, which vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT, have been increased on firming up of global rates that followed four months of decline.
