Petrol and diesel prices were on Tuesday hiked by 80 paise a litre while domestic cooking gas prices were increased by Rs 50 per cylinder, ending an over four-and-half month election-related hiatus in rate revision, sources said. Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 96.21 per litre as against Rs 95.41 previously while diesel has gone up from Rs 86.67 per litre to Rs 87.47. Simultaneously, the price of a non-subsidised LPG cylinder has been increased to Rs 949.50 for each 14.2-kg bottle in the national capital.
All subsequent cylinders will have a non-subsidised rate that will be fixed every month.
Delhiites will have to shell out more from their pockets for virtually everything from cooking gas to diesel with Delhi government on Monday withdrawing subsidy on LPG and increasing VAT on many items to "generate" additional revenue.
Cooking gas or Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) price has been raised by Rs 50 per cylinder by distribution companies, Union Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday.
Normal life was disrupted in Kashmir on Friday due to a strike called by an amalgam of trading bodies seeking an increase in the number of subsidised LPG cylinders in the Valley.
There are about 15.3 crore LPG consumers in the country.
The cap on cylinders would burden the Centre, which will need to compensate the states for the increased cooking fuel cost.
The decision was taken at a full commission meeting held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath, and communicated to the Union Cabinet, which met to take a call on the matter.
Under pressure from his party, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said the government is considering increasing the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders to 12 per household even as hints were dropped of a one-time hike in diesel and LPG rates
The government has slashed allocation of natural gas used for LPG production, and diverted the low-priced fuel to city gas retailers like Indraprastha Gas Ltd and Adani-Total Gas Ltd to meet a part of their requirement for CNG/piped cooking gas supplies, according an official order. The government had in October and November last year cut supplies of low-priced natural gas coming from old fields such as Mumbai High and Bassein fields in the Bay of Bengal, to city gas retailers by as much as 40 per cent in view of limited output.
The government will provide five crore LPG connections on concessional rates in the name of women from below poverty line.
All subsidies will be eliminated by March 2018
A day after Election Commission rap, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily on Wednesday said the government has not yet taken any decision on raising cap on supply of subsidised LPG cylinders and the EC would have been informed before announcing any decision.
The government is likely to extend by two more years subsidies on LPG and kerosene while asking the state-run oil firms to bear part of the Rs 14,000 crore under-recoveries due to unchanged prices despite a rise in the cost of raw material.
The union government is planning to release about 5.5 crore new LPG connections over the next five years, petroleum and natural gas minister Murli Deora said.
Minutes after the Union Cabinet approved raising the cap on subsidised liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders from nine to 12 per connection in a year, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan questioned the decision, suggesting it was "misdirected subsidy".
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 price of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG) was on cut by Rs 21 per cylinder and that of jet fuel (ATF) by a steep 3 per cent on the back of falling international oil rates.
The incident occurred between Saradhna and Bangad stations of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor on the Phulera-Ahmedabad stretch.
Over 12,450 LPG users have so far voluntarily given up their subsidies, but this accounts for only 0.008 per cent of about 15 crore (150 million) domestic cooking gas consumers in the country.
The seeding of LPG database with Aadhar numbers is above 55 per cent and overall Aadhar penetration is 90 per cent in these districts.
1.46 lakh such consumers have voluntarily given up the subsidy.
The recent government decision to restrict supply of subsidised cooking gas cylinders to six per year to each household will see consumption for fuel decline to 4.1 per cent in second half of the fiscal, a report by think-tank CMIE said.
The Tihar jail authorities expect the network, which will carry gas to jail kitchens, to be laid out by April and this will cost about Rs 60 lakh, Director General (Prisons) B K Gupta told reporters. "LPG cylinders are widely used by prisoners during riots in jails and we want to avoid such incidents," he said. During the January 7 jail riots in a Jalandhar prison, the inmates threw LPG cylinders into the fire but luckily, these did not explode.
Police said around 15 people were rescued and shifted to Acharya Bhikshu hospital. Of them, seven died and four people, who were critical, have been shifted to Safdarjung hospital. A few more persons are feared trapped under the debris, they said.
Rates have been on the upswing since October, 2016.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is to set up three liquefied petroleum gas bottling plants with an investment of Rs 55 crore (Rs 550 million) even as it plans to introduce the 5-kg LPG cylinders in the urban areas.
The railway officials launched an investigation jointly with the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) and found there was no criminal intent behind the act.
The government also withdrew the five per cent VAT on compressed natural gas besides bringing back the VAT for tea, coffee and cocoa to five per cent from the proposed 12.5 per cent.
In a race to woo voters with freebies ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday promised Rs 2,000 per month for women homemakers if his party returns to power.
This is the second straight increase in jet fuel rates in as many months.
An FIR has been registered against unknown persons after the police and railway staff recovered a 25-foot long iron rod from the Pilibhit-Bareilly railway track in Uttar Pradesh. The iron rod was found on the track near Lalouri Kheda, forcing a train to stop for four minutes after its engine hit the object. The incident is being investigated as a deliberate attempt to harm the train and its passengers.
Aviation turbine fuel to now cost more.
Pahal looks to cut down diversion and eliminate duplicate.
In order to end use of kerosene -- which often does not reach the intended beneficiaries -- the Delhi government on Tuesday launched an ambitious scheme, where about 3.5 lakh BPL and poor families will get free LPG cylinders and gas stoves.
Rs 7,024 cr transferred under LPG cash subsidy scheme.
India, the world's third largest energy consumer, has enough petrol, diesel and cooking gas (LPG) in stock to last way beyond the three-week nationwide lockdown, as all plants and supply locations are fully operational, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) chairman Sanjiv Singh said.an Singh, who continued to oversee the mammoth operations of ensuring that fuel reaches every nook and corner despite the loss of his father on the day the 21-day lockdown was declared, said there was no shortage of any fuel in the country and customers should not resort to panic booking of LPG refills.
The phased increase of prices is being done to sell the fuel at international prices.
