Differences between ministries of divestment and petroleum are likely to surface at Fridays meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment as the former is believed to have proposed keeping public sector units.
The government is keen on getting global oil majors like Saudi Aramco and National Iranian Oil Corp on board Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum through the market route even though privatisation of the state-run oil refining and marketing compa
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation approached the petroleum ministry on Thursday with an initial proposal for permission to bid for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation as and when the government decides to offer its stake in the PSU.
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.
Deora is believed to have explained the oil ministry's position on gas pricing and utilisation.
With the finance ministry facing the risk of missing its tax collection target this year, it has turned down a proposal to reduce duties on petroleum products to reduce the impact of rising crude prices on profitability of oil companies.
The government will provide private companies subsidy equivalent to that given to state retailing firms on LPG, petroleum secretary B K Chaturvedi said.
Indian basket at 6-month low of $49.11 a bbl
Petroleum product consumption rose 11.6 million tons in December as against 11.12 million tons a year ago, according to the latest data available from petroleum ministry in New Delhi. Low freight traffic with railways, a major consumer of diesel, and not-so-encouraging agriculture scenario also contributed to the low growth rate.
The fall in international oil prices has resulted in handsome margins for state-owned firms on petrol and diesel sales, but not all of it would be reflected in the cut in the retail selling price, as Finance Ministry wants to take away some of the gain by raising excise duty.
Move likely to be rolled back atleast for state transport undertakings
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.
The calculation is based on annual usage of eight cylinders per household.
The deficit would have been lower if gold imports hadn't shot up 85.16 per cent last month to $2.91 billion
Labayendu Mansingh, Chairman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, is an amicable yet tough man. In his 5 months as the petroleum & natural gas regulator, Mansingh announced to the oil & gas industry his intention of proving that the regulatory board is more than a toothless tiger. The board will come out with its first set of regulations, which will lay down rules for the distribution of gas to households, vehicles & industries in cities by middle of this month.
The Petroleum Ministry may have watered down its preconditions for approving mining group Vedanta Resources' acquisition of Cairn India, but the $9.6 billion deal will still hinges on no-objection from partner ONGC.
The government had last year excluded those with an annual income of more than Rs 10 lakh from LPG subsidy
The bench said the Union Cabinet Secretary will be the convenor of the task force and may nominate an officer not below the rank of Additional Secretary to depute for him, when necessary.
Downstream oil sector regulator Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board had been pushing for cancellation of the authorisation given to RGTIL.
The government on Thursday approved Rs 20,001 crore in additional cash subsidy to state-owned oil companies to compensate them for selling fuel below cost in 2010-11 fiscal. With this, the government has paid a total of Rs 40,912 crore in subsidy to oil companies in 2010-11 financial year, an oil ministry official said.
As per the current market price, the government is expected to fetch Rs 5,300 crore (Rs 53 billion) by selling 10 per cent equity or 24.27 crore (242.7 million) shares at discounted price to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India Ltd.
Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami is to preside over a meeting in the North Block on Thursday with seven secretaries to discuss about the formation of Telangana.
At least half a dozen national and international oil giants, including Reliance and Royal Dutch Shell, joined the race, on Friday, for acquiring government's 34 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
Colombo seems to be veering to the middle path between China and the US on global matters, but in regional matters of strategic security, it is increasingly identifying with India, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The petroleum ministry has invited bids from companies willing to share Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd's proposed Rs 1,367 crore Mundra-Delhi product pipeline capacity.
The entry of a new developer through competitive bidding would delay the development of discoveries by at least 10 years.
Monday's meeting of the empowered group of ministers on pricing of gas from Reliance Industries' D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin has proved inconclusive.
The eight core industries -- fertilisers, cement, steel, electricity, crude oil, coal, petroleum refinery products and natural gas -- have a combined weight of about 38 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production.
Not only does there appear to be no meeting ground on the issue of a pricing formula proposed by the committee, the petroleum ministry wants another committee headed by Vijay Kelkar to look into the other major recommendation of moving to the revenue sharing model in exploration and production.
In a presentation to investors in Mumbai last week, Aramane Giridhar, Joint Secretary (Exploration) gave detailed reasons for pendency of decisions in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas where officials approved of decisions but refused to issue formal orders, resulting in delays in production of oil and gas.
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Investment can only be by prospective dealers.
The demand for diesel cars, which account for 58 per cent of passenger vehicle sales in India every month, has seen a steep rise, as manufacturers continue to introduce variants that have diesel engines.
India's reforms are business-friendly rather than market-friendly, says T N Ninan.
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