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The scheme was launched in 2012 in collaboration with three Oil Marketing Companies and Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for which Delhi Government had incurred an expenditure of Rs 62 crore (Rs 620 million).
The ministry of petroleum and natural gas is evaluating a threshold at which the subsidy on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or cooking gas) will be reinstated. According to a senior government official in the know, a survey is currently being conducted to determine the price at which maximum consumers will keep buying domestic cylinders. One of the options also being considered is to limit any subsidy disbursal only to Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) beneficiaries.
The apex court observed that the government could not deny benefits to those who did not have not Aadhaar numbers.
The opposition party vowed to hit the streets against the "Modi-made inflation" and run a people's movement over price rise.
Margins for the oil refining and retailing sector have moved off their peaks, and the average integrated margins (refining plus marketing) for oil marketing companies (OMCs) have normalised. The ascent in crude oil prices, combined with static retail prices, has depressed marketing margins for diesel and petrol. However, the fall in marketing margins has been offset by increased gross refining margins (GRMs).
These mega projects, worth about Rs 1 trillion, would boost the economy, ensure smooth supply of petroleum products across the nation and also provide the much-needed relief to people looking to get back to work after the lockdown.
Of Trump's reciprocal tariffs and trade deals
The trade war between the US and China is expected to benefit Indian exporters in increasing their shipments to the American market, sources said. They said the country was the fourth-largest gainer when the US imposed higher duties on Chinese goods during US President Donald Trump's first tenure.
Government-controlled oil-marketing companies (OMCs) have held back petrol and diesel price revisions for a week and are expected to continue doing so, ostensibly owing to political reasons. It appears that the Centre has informally conveyed to the three major OMCs to not revise fuel prices for the time being, two people in the government said. This informal directive follows the talks between the Centre and states on cutting taxes and bringing the auto fuels under the good service tax regime not fetching the desired results, so far.
Given that the target was to reach 80.34 million families under PMUY - within three months starting April 1 - the government should have distributed at least 241.02 million cylinders by the end of June. It actually ended up distributing only 119.7 million cylinders.
The government has slashed by up to 20 per cent the supplies of cheaper domestically produced natural gas to city retailers -- a move that may result in Rs 4-6 per kg hike in the price of CNG sold to automobiles, unless excise duty on the fuel is cut, sources said. Natural gas pumped from below the ground and from under the seabed from sites ranging from the Arabian Sea to Bay of Bengal within India is the raw material that is turned into CNG for sale to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households.
Diversified business house Trident Group would become the first corporate to use Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) for disbursal of salaries to its employees.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm, has walked away with half of the natural gas that Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner bp of the UK offered in the latest auction of the fuel used to generate power, produce fertilizer, turned into CNG and used for cooking purposes. IOC got 2.5 million standard cubic meters per day out of the 5 mmscmd of gas auctioned last month, sources with knowledge of the matter said. The oil refining and marketing company, which was the top bidder even in the previous auction of gas from the eastern offshore KG-D6 block of Reliance-bp, bid the volumes on behalf of seven fertilizer plants.
OMCs' Digital India move is likely to have an impact on more than 80.3 million Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana consumers, majority of whom are not exposed to digital transact.
The Centre will soon write to the states to bring uniformity in the Value Added Tax on oil products so that benefits of price cuts filter down to the masses.
The BJP lost 15 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. Union ministers have been deployed in all 15, tasked with turning the result around.
The country's present growth rate is 7.6% and its economy is $1.7 trillion.
Estimated to cost $44 billion, the project was expected to be commissioned by 2025.
The government has nipped Oil and Natural Gas Corp's exclusive plans to extract liquid petroleum gas and C2/C3 from liquefied natural gas by also allowing gas utility GAIL India to do the same from the common LNG being imported by Petronet.
The company is also looking to expand the supply of gas by roads and is evaluating creation of small storage hubs along the highways.
A shortfall in LPG supply from Aramco has led to huge booking backlog across states. To meet the backlog, India has asked Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for two additional cargos of LPG, but that may take another 10 days to reach.
UID project was launched by the UPA government in 2009.
India is back on the diplomatic table pushing oil producing countries to raise production in a bid to cool down runaway oil prices. Brent crude oil prices traded above $90 a barrel, on Thursday, for the first time since 2014. Brent is the most popular marker for crude oil trade. It is used as a benchmark for two-thirds of the world's internationally traded crude oil.
The department of financial services has decided to give banks commission, to ensure these accounts are kept active.
The kerosene subsidy is expected to decline by 40 per cent from Rs 7,595 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 4,500 crore this financial year.
This may come as a surprise to many. Retail price inflation in petrol was the lowest at 10.21 per cent in March since November 2020. In diesel, it scraped the bottom of the barrel at 5.19 per cent in the last month of 2021-22 since February 2020. Even liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was at a nine-month low of 9.97 per cent in the month.
There are about 15.3 crore LPG consumers in the country.
Over 100 beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana from 20 states will share with the LPG panchayat their experiences of how clean cooking fuel has changed their lives, in the presence of President Ram Nath Kovind.
Looking into the current situation on the China boarder, IOC has stocked up enough winter-grade fuel for the region. With army movements increasing, the demand for this fuel is expected to increase multifold from the 350 metric tonnes last winter.
Declining crude price translates into lower under-recoveries for OMCs
One of the major challenges before the government is that the annual average refill by a PMUY consumer is 3.28 cylinders compared to seven for others.
The International Centre for Automotive Technology at Haryana will authorise usage of labels for each vehicle model and its variant.
While the Union Cabinet had in November last year approved the sale of the government's entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL, offers seeking expression of interest (EoI), or bids showing interest in buying its stake, were invited only on March 7. The EoI submission deadline was May 2, but on March 31 it was extended up to June 13. On Wednesday, the government said this deadline is further being extended up to July 31.
The President said he made the decision in consultation with European allies but added they may not be in a position to join the US in banning Russian energy imports.
Moody's expects the new government to increase the retail selling prices of controlled fuel products -- kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas -- to help control its subsidy burden.
The sale is key to meeting the government's disinvestment target of Rs 2.1 trillion in the financial year 2020-21. So far, the disinvestment exercise has fetched the government Rs 34,845 crore during the current financial year.
The rising goods and services tax (GST) and personal income-tax collections may bolster the Narendra Modi government's ability to announce new schemes or enhance existing ones.
Diesel prices have cumulatively risen by Rs 10.68 a litre in 17 instalments since January 2013 when the United Progressive Alliance government had decided on the monthly hikes.
Could the MPCE survey results be used as a basis of reconstructing the Consumer Price Index with new weights, asks Madan Sabnavis.
The scarcity of resources is particularly evident in the case of Rajasthan compared to many other states.
