Despite raising petrol prices by around Rs 2.95 a litre - the second-biggest increase in this calendar year so far - public and private retailers are losing Rs 50 crore a day on selling the auto fuel.
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Obulapuram Mining Company, belonging to the Reddy brothers, to resume mining in the undisputed region of the Bellary reserve forest in Karnataka.
The government-controlled oil marketing companies (OMCs) decided to review retail prices of petrol on a monthly basis. However, the date for the next price review and the mechanism to fix the price are yet to be finalised.
Prices of petrol were reduced 32 times and increased 21 times while diesel prices were slashed 19 times and raised 28 times since 2013.
Karnataka Lokayukta Police on Tuesday raided the premises of former minister and mining baron Janardhan Reddy in Bellary for alleged illegal mining and possession of disproportionate assets.
Rebuffing petroleum ministry, Siddaramaiah launches Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana-like scheme months before state polls
The country is facing no shortage of domestic cooking gas at the moment, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. As on October 1, 2007, OMCs were serving 9.79 crore LPG customers through their 9,355 distributorships. OMCs have released 27.7 lakh new LPG domestic connections in the country during April-September.
Credit card payments to buy fuel at petrol pumps will from October 1 not get a 0.75 per cent discount that State-owned oil companies had introduced more than two-and-a-half years back to promote digital payments.
In early trade on Monday, the rupee fell to 63.33 to a dollar, its weakest since September 18.
Declining crude price translates into lower under-recoveries for OMCs
Govt looks to take cooking gas to tiger reserves, Naxal-hit areas
#GiveItUp but no matching LPG connections for BPL
Ministry may seek to retain control even after underrecovery becomes zero.
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 Union government will gain close to Rs 1.6 lakh crore in additional revenues this fiscal from a record hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel that has pushed the total incidence of taxation on auto fuels to 70 per cent of the price. Late on Tuesday evening, the government hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 13 a litre to mop up gains arising from international oil prices falling to a two-decade low.
Move likely to be rolled back atleast for state transport undertakings
Prime minister's office wants OMCs to bear credit subsidy for remaining 8 subsidised units on reimbursement basis.
Plans to increase price progressively.
The private companies want a level playing field so that they can compete with the government companies in fuel retailing.
Next phase of rise will unlikely be a combined exercise from the three oil marketing companies.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against K Mehfuz Ali Khan, an accused in the Obulapuram Mining Company scam involving jailed former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy.
With the losses incurred by oil marketing companies (OMC's) on selling regulated fuels below their market prices (under-recoveries) reaching alarming levels, an urgent corrective action, like hiking the price of diesel, has become imperative, says a Crisil study.
A special CBI court in Hyderabad on Monday dismissed the bail plea of mining baron and former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, an accused in the illegal mining case involving his Obulapuram Mining Company.
Relief seen from easing global crude oil prices, phased diesel decontrol and capping of LPG cylinders.
Those losses, or 'under-recoveries', are of course eventually covered partly by the central government, and are the most potent contributor to India's problems with its fiscal deficit.
'I have no problems with the finance ministry or with state governments treating petrol pump prices as the last resort for meeting their ambitious spending targets with very limited revenue resources.' 'But let's do away with this smokescreen of free pricing of petrol and diesel and go back to administered pricing regime,' says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Thursday extended till January 25 the judicial custody of former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy and three others accused in the "illegal" mining case involving Obulapuram Mining Company.
The Central Bureau of Investigation probing the alleged illegal mining and irregularities in allotment of leases to Obulapuram Mining Company, on Friday began questioning former Karnataka minister Gali Karunakara Reddy in connection with the case.
Firm crude and weaker rupee mean more losses for oil marketing companies. Jet fuel also set to rise, stressing airline finances.
Inclusive of the July hike of 25 paise, a monthly increase of similar amount would result in a saving of Rs 2.25 a litre for the current financial year alone.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday filed a chargesheet in a special court in the illegal mining case involving Obulapuram Mining Company owned by former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy.
Burdened with the impact of subsidising the retail losses of downstream oil marketing companies (OMCs), Oil India Ltd has asked the Union government to take the average of the last five years' net profit for calculating the proportionate share of upstream companies, against the current practice of the last three years' average.
Senior IAS officer Y Srilakshmi, arrested in the illegal mining case involving Gali Janardhan Reddy-owned Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), was on Thursday sent to judicial custody till December 12 by a local court.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has called Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, for questioning on November 4 in connection with alleged multi-crore iron ore mining scam.
After steep correction in valuations, these have turned attractive but upside will depend on diesel price rises and export-parity pricing.
With the arrest of Bellary mining magnate Janardhan Reddy by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the focus has now shifted to the Obulapuram Mining Company, the lease for which was granted by the Andhra Pradesh government then led by Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
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 sugar industry is gearing up to offer the entire quantity for the tenders, which will close on September 2.
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