A day ahead of a crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment, Defence Minister George Fernandes said he favoured public sector units like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to be allowed to bid for HPCL.
Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie said Tuesday the SEBI has initiated an investigation into the fall of share prices of BPCL and HPCL.
Divestment Minister Arun Shourie will soon make a statement on stake sales in two state-run oil firms following a consensus reached on the issue by a group of top ministers.
Government had last week issued bonds worth Rs 11,256.92 crore (Rs 112.56 billion) to three PSU oil marketing companies to compensate them for under-recoveries on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and PDS kerosene in April-September 2007 period.
S Rajendra Babu, a Supreme Court judge, was on Thursday appointed the Chief Justice of India with effect from May 2.
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on Thursday termed as an "obstacle" the Supreme Court ruling halting the privatisation of oil firms HPCL and BPCL and said the government will "manoeuvre" it to keep the momentum of divestment programme.
Oil major ONGC is believed to have been kept out of the bidding process for the two oil PSUs.
The government has been able to mobilise Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 30-35 billion) by way of divestment during the first nine months of the current financial year, Divestment Minister, Arun Shourie.
After the two hikes, the ATF prices had risen to above September levels, the official said. The three oil firms revise jet fuel prices on the first and the 16th day of every month based on the average global oil price in the previous fortnight.
IOC and sister PSUs Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are losing Rs 4.60 on sale of every litre of petrol and Rs 2.33 per litre of diesel currently, IOC director (marketing) G C Dagga told reporters in New Delhi.
The government is planning a moderate hike of Rs 1-1.50 per litre in the prices of petrol and diesel in view of the rising global crude tags.
Public sector oil retailing firms have lost over Rs 5,800 crore in the first six weeks of current fiscal due to non-revision of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene prices.
The jet fuel rate will go up by Rs 104 per kilolitre in Delhi to Rs 32,303, an IOC official said. The increase comes on the back of a 1.8 per cent hike in rates on May 16. On May 1, state-run oil firms marginally reduced the price by one per cent, which had brought the rates in Delhi down to Rs 31,614.51 per kl. In Mumbai, home to the nation's busiest airport, the rate will go up from Rs 33,138 per kl to Rs 33,261 per kl.
Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum raised the aviation turbine fuel price by Rs 585 per kilolitre in Delhi to Rs 32,199 with effect from midnight tonight, an IOC official said. The increase comes on the back of a marginally one per cent reduction effected on May 1, which had brought the rates in Delhi down to Rs 31,614.51 per kl.
State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp has offered to take Hindustan Petroleum Corp as equal partner in the Rs 6,354 crore (Rs 63.54 billion) Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh.
Petrol and diesel prices are likely to go up by at least Rs 2 per litre after the Lok Sabha polls, once the current freeze on revising prices in step with the cost of the raw material -- crude oil -- is lifted.
Indian state-run oil giants HPCL and BPCL reported on Wednesday no supply disruptions as result of a two-day-old strike by workers opposing privatisation of the refiners.
HPCL, BPCL shares may yield Rs 1000 cr bonanza for employees
Noting that Gandhi had claimed that armed forces can restore peace in the state within days if allowed, BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wondered if he wanted what his grandmother and then prime minister Indira Gandhi had done by ordering the Air Force to drop bombs in Aizawl in the 1960s.
Dividends paid by central public-sector enterprises (CPSEs) in 2024-25 are set to be the highest ever, with the government receiving 69,873 crore so far. A government official said he was hopeful the receipts would touch 70,000 crore in the last week of the financial year.
With the government giving limited freedom to state-run oil companies to fix auto fuel prices within a narrow price band, petrol prices are set to go up by Rs 0.57 per litre and diesel by Rs 0.92 per litre from August 1.
The three oil PSUs have told Air India that if it did not make the monthly lump sum payment, they will stop fuel supply from October 11 at six major domestic airports.
ONGC, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Oil India listed the spending as part of their mandatory CSR commitment, but CAG noted that the Sardar Patel statue did not qualify for CSR funding.
This is the second hike in diesel price this month.
Truck drivers protesting against a provision in the new penal law on hit-and-run road accidents, called off their strike in Nashik district of Maharashtra on Tuesday after the local authorities assured to look into their demands.
The cut reflects changes in global prices of the two fuels since the last revision.
However, copious oil supplies amid growing global output and slowing Chinese oil consumption will put India in a better bargaining position with Gulf suppliers.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Tuesday reported halving of its March quarter net profit largely because of losses in the petrochemical business and shrinking margin after it announced a pre-election fuel price cut despite rising input costs. The net profit of Rs 4,837.69 crore in January-March compared to Rs 10,058.69 crore a year back and Rs 8,063.39 crore in the preceding October-December quarter, according to a stock exchange filing by the company.
Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 77.28 per litre from Rs 76.73, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 75.79 a litre from Rs 75.19, according to a price notification from State oil marketing companies. Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.
India may have to lean more on West Asian nations for supplies of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a cooking fuel, in the coming years after Indian state-run refiners drew up big plans to diversify into producing more profitable petrochemicals. This shift leads to reduced LPG output, Indian refining executives said. The mantra for state-run oil companies, from Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) to liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer Petronet LNG, which are looking to diversify their businesses from lower-margin fuels, has been value-added petrochemicals.
'The universe of PSU stocks is huge and diverse.' 'Investors should bet on specific sectors and stocks from the basket as most of them may continue to consolidate after years of outperformance.'
In nine hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 5 per litre and diesel by Rs 4.87 a litre.
Russian energy giant Rosneft has appointed a former Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) director to its board in signs it may be looking at boosting trade links with India. G K Satish, who retired as director for business development at IOC in 2021, is one of the three new faces appointed to the 11-strong board of directors of Rosneft, according to a statement issued by the Russian firm. Satish, 62, is the first Indian to be appointed to the board of Rosneft.
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.
Capital expenditure (capex) by 54 large central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) and five departmental arms with an annual capex target of Rs 100 crore and above has reached around 42.5 per cent of their annual target of about Rs 7.33 trillion in this financial year so far, a senior official from the Ministry of Finance told Business Standard. "The Centre is pushing the big public undertakings in the infrastructure and refinery sector to achieve 90 per cent of their target by the end of the third quarter," he said. The capex by this group of CPSEs stands at around Rs 3.1 trillion in the April-August period so far.
In 13 hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 7.11 per litre and diesel by Rs 7.67 a litre.
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