Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address, charged the government with not delivering on its various promises, including generating two crore jobs per year.
The move is likely to force the government to take a faster decision.
It is rare for Cabinet ministers to tick off state-owned companies publicly, yet that was what then petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan did for ONGC. Speaking at an event on June 29, Pradhan said he has asked India's premier exploration company to find fresh oil acreages fast. "Do it yourself through some joint venture (or) through a new business model. But the government cannot permit you to hold resources for an indefinite time." The reason for this stricture is India's rising dependence on imported oil and gas. Or, to put it another way, falling domestic production (see chart: "Crude truth"), especially from ONGC, which faces a simple problem.
RIL had drawn 58.67 bcm from the wells up to March 31, 2015.
For the past one week, Modi has been holding in-person meetings with Union ministers apparently to take stock of the work done by the government in the last two years and to discuss various issues.
Relations between an elected government of Delhi and the LG can never be cordial: It is just the way the relationship is structured.
Other decisions piled up include rationalisation of GST rate slabs, correction of inverted duty on certain items and inclusion of petroleum products.
The output of eight core sectors grew 8.9 per cent in June, mainly due to a low base effect and uptick in production of natural gas, steel, coal and electricity, official data showed on Friday. The eight infrastructure sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity had contracted by 12.4 per cent in June 2020 due to the lockdown restrictions imposed to control the spread of coronavirus infections. In May this year, these key sectors had recorded a growth of 16.3 per cent, while it was 60.9 per cent in April.
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.
It is clear Modi wants to establish a direct hotline with the bureaucracy, bypassing the ministers, just like in Gujarat where the bureaucracy ran the show and the babus were given a free hand to take decisions.
Trade deficit marginally widened to $9.85 billion as against $9.72 billion in February 2019.
The country's exports rose by 48.34 per cent to $32.5 billion on account of healthy growth in shipments of petroleum products, gems and jewellery, and chemicals, leather and marine goods, according to the data released by the Commerce Ministry on Thursday. Imports in June too rose by 98.31 per cent to $41.87 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $9.37 billion as against a trade surplus of $0.79 billion in the same month last year. During April-June 2021, the exports increased by 85.88 per cent to $95.39 billion.
The net indirect tax collection in 2020-21 grew 12.3 per cent annually to Rs 10.71 lakh crore, thereby exceeding the target set in revised estimates, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. The mop-up through indirect taxes, which include GST, Customs and excise duties, was Rs 9.54 lakh crore in 2019-20. In the Revised Estimates (RE) for 2020-21, the target was set at Rs 9.89 lakh crore. Net collections from Goods and Services Tax (GST) stood at Rs 5.48 lakh crore during 2020-21, an eight per cent drop compared to Rs 5.99 lakh crore in the previous fiscal year.
Only 48.3 per cent of the rural households used LPG, while the figures were much higher in urban areas at 86.6 per cent, according to a NSO report.
The petroleum ministry has blamed negligence for causing the devastating fire at state-owned gas transporter GAIL India Ltd's gas pipeline in Andhra Pradesh that killed 22 people.
According to data released by the commerce and industry ministry, exports stood at $25.01 billion in the month. The fall is only the second time exports contracted in the past year.
RIL, Capgemini, IndiGo among companies which have offered to pay their employees' vaccination cost.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday put state-owned ONGC and OIL on notice saying oil and gas reserves they hold need to be monetised through joint ventures with domain experts or the government will take them away and auction them. Speaking at BNEF Summit, he said state-owned firms cannot indefinitely sit on resources when the nation is a net importer of oil and gas. Despite India bidding out acreages to private and other companies since the 1990s, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) hold a "sizeable number of acreage for years," he said.
Government sources said the GoM on coronavirus crisis also reviewed various measures being initiated by concerned ministries to allow partial economic activity in 'non-hotspot zones' from April 20.
The reshuffle had politics at its heart, so the biggest complement of new ministers, both Cabinet rank and below, came from UP, which will see assembly elections in a few months.
India's cities must switch over to piped gas leaving LPG cylinders.
Petrol and diesel prices, which have been on a freeze for the past four months in view of assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh, need to be increased by over Rs 12 per litre by March 16 for fuel retailers to break even. International crude oil prices shot above $120 a barrel for the first time in nine years on Thursday before retreating a little to $111 on Friday, but the gulf between cost and retail rates has only widened. With international oil prices - on which domestic fuel retails are directly benchmarked - spiking in the last two months, state-owned fuel retailers "need a massive price hike of Rs 12.1 per litre on or before March 16, 2022, just to breakeven and a price hike of Rs 15.1 is required" after including margins for oil firms, ICICI Securities said in a report.
Over the past decade, RIL has never announced lesser dividend to its shareholders even when faced with lower profits
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the much-awaited 2022-23 Union Budget on February 1. While there has been strong recovery in some sectors, touch services like hospitality, tourism and leisure continue to suffer after two Covid-19 waves. Household savings have been hit due to increased spending on health care. Consumption has still not reached pre-pandemic levels.
There has been a quantum jump in the number of complaints of corruption received by the Central Vigilance Commission last year as against those in 2011.
Jaipal Reddy, who has been given the science and technology ministry, is deeply upset by his transfer from the petroleum and natural gas ministry and did not come to handover charge to new minister Veerappa Moily.
The GoM will suggest various development, economic and social steps to be taken for the two UTs which will come into existence on October 31, sources said.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is demanding an increase in excise duty on diesel cars with a view to discouraging consumption of subsidised fuel by personal vehicle owners.
The Finance Ministry will give Rs 12,000 crore in cash to Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum to cover for less than half of the losses they incurred on selling LPG and kerosene this fiscal.
A realistic approach towards tax and stock taking is necessary, rather than the old narrative of bringing all petroleum products under GST and playing the blame-the-state game.
The ministry of petroleum has approached the finance ministry to seek permission to give additional bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore to the three public sector oil marketing companies --Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd--to help them close the last fiscal with a profit.
The company said the new model would be available for sale in sugarcane-producing Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, to begin with.
Exports of petroleum products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, and engineering goods registered a positive growth.
Petrol and diesel prices are likely to be hiked this week as oil companies prepare to pare losses accumulated from keeping rates steady for over four months in the run-up to assembly elections in five states, including UP, despite international oil prices jumping to a 13-year high of $140 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the US oil benchmark, rose to $130.50 per barrel on Sunday evening, its highest since July 2008, before retreating. The international benchmark, Brent crude, hit a high of $139.13 at one point overnight, also its highest since July 2008.
The three state-owned oil companies have decided to defer snapping fuel supplies to Air India. The airline owes the three firms over Rs 5,000 crore in past fuel bills.
India's total purchase of oil from Russia in a month is probably less than what Europe does in an afternoon, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.
The ministry has asked the oil marketing companies to further step up their efforts to curb adulteration of petroleum products.
RIL has maintained it had followed the production sharing contract (PSC) in letter and spirit and done no wrong and it has drilled all wells within its boundary.
With the first quarter gross tax mop-up reaching Rs 5.6 lakh crore, Icra Ratings on Friday said the government is set to exceed the budgeted tax collection target of Rs 22.2 lakh crore for 2021-22, led by indirect taxes. The government has budgeted a modest 9.5 per cent growth in tax collections at Rs 22.2 lakh crore for FY22, over FY21 collections of Rs 20.2 lakh crore. However, despite the second wave of the pandemic, the April-June quarter tax collections rose to Rs 5.6 lakh crore, which is 39 per cent higher than Q1 of FY20.
