The government on Thursday more than doubled the price of natural gas that is used to produce electricity, make fertilisers, turned into CNG and piped to household kitchens for cooking, on the back of a spike in global energy prices. The price of gas produced from old regulated fields, such as the nation's largest gas field of Bassein of ONGC, will rise to a record high of $6.10 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from the current $2.90 per mmBtu, according to the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC). The new price, which is likely to result in a hike in CNG and piped cooking gas rates, will be for six months beginning April 1.
The price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) may be hiked by up to Rs 2 per kg in the next few days as rupee devaluation has pushed up input cost.
Mahanagar Gas (MGL) has just hiked prices for compressed natural gas (CNG) and domestic piped natural gas (PNG) in the Mumbai Metro Area. The distributor raised prices by Rs 1.50 per kilogramme (kg) for CNG, bringing the price up to Rs 75 per kg, including taxes. Domestic PNG prices were hiked from Rs 1 per standard cubic meter (SCM) to Rs 48 per SCM, inclusive of taxes.
Given the stronger rural activity, and potential goods and services tax (GST) impact, investors are bullish on the two-wheeler (2W) segment. In August, dealers in the domestic market picked up 11 per cent more 2Ws year-on-year (Y-o-Y), despite only 2 per cent growth in retail registrations. This indicates inventory stocking ahead of the festival season. Export trends were good. TVS Motor and Royal Enfield may have gained domestic market share.
Mercedes sells models ranging from A Class to Maybach, priced between Rs 28 lakh and Rs 1.67 crore.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) aims to sell 4-6 lakh CNG units in the current fiscal year depending upon supply situation of essential components, as per a senior company official. The company sold about 2.3 lakh CNG units in 2021-22. MSI currently sells nine of its 15 models with CNG powertrain and is looking to drive in more models with such technology in the coming days.
The recent increase in the prices of CNG has prompted auto and taxi drivers to demand demand hike in fares.
Hike would have led to higher cost of fertiliser, electricity and even CNG.
In absolute terms, prices will go up by Rs 5,500 to Rs 47,000, depending on the model and prevailing prices.
Bajaj Auto reported steady results in Q1FY25, with revenue surging 16 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), operating profit registering a growth of 24 per cent Y-o-Y, and margins swelling 20.2 per cent. The profitability was aided by 50 basis points (bps) on the accrual of PLI benefits. The domestic prospects for two-wheelers are healthy, though the response to the newly launched CNG motorcycle is a key monitorable.
The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has approved a hike in gas prices from April 2014.
As the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer, India is running out of options as the relentless surge in international oil prices make it imperative to pass them on to consumers, officials said on Monday. India imports 85 per cent of its crude oil needs and about half of its natural gas requirement. While the imported crude oil is turned into fuels such as petrol and diesel, gas is used as CNG in automobiles and fuel in factories.
The government on Wednesday put off a proposal to hike natural gas prices by Rs 350 per thousand cubic meters until the second half of 2004.
The Prime Minister's Office on Thursday forwarded to Oil and Petroleum Ministry a letter written by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in which he has demanded that the decision to hike gas price extracted from KG basin be kept in abeyance till completion of a probe into the issue.
Bus and auto fares in the national capital are likely to go up after Indraprastha Gas Ltd announced a hike in the price of compressed natural gas for transport vehicles from July 1.\n\n
Traversing from being just vehicle manufacturers to mobility solutions providers amid a raging debate over which eco-friendly technology must be incentivised, the Indian automobile industry is driving in the new year under the shadow of a slowdown in sales with the post-pandemic pent-up demand in distant memory. The shift in the auto industry -- where advanced technologies like autonomous driving, vehicle intelligence, connected features and electrification are quickly gaining traction -- will be reflected in the upcoming Bharat Mobility Global Expo in which India's flagship Auto Expo has been clubbed to be held from January 17-22, 2025 in Delhi-NCR.
The passenger vehicle dispatches to dealers increased by 11 per cent in July as improvement in semiconductor supplies helped the companies to ramp up production ahead of the festive season, auto dealers' body SIAM said on Friday. Overall passenger vehicle wholesales increased to 293,865 units last month compared to 264,442 units in July 2021. Passenger car dispatches rose 10 per cent to 143,522 units in July from 130,080 units in the year-ago period.
Diesel cars though deliver a high mileage but are heavy on the pocket.
While the share of diesel vehicles sales in the overall passenger car industry has already fallen sharply, sales of CNG vehicles have shown a compound annual growth rate of 15.5 per cent over the past five years.
The Congresshas announced a three-phased campaign, "Mehngai-mukt Bharat Abhiyaan".
There was some respite for Mumbaikars when the strike was called off in the evening. However, the prospect of soon having to shell out more for their journey left them anguished.
Passengers complained that they had to wait a long time for Ola and Uber cabs, and added that those were available at inflated rates.
Buying a car, particularly a diesel-powered one, is set to pinch the customers' pockets even more from the next financial year, as the second phase of Bharat Stage VI (BSVI) emission norms kicks in. The rules require cars to be compliant with real driving emission (RDE) norms, which measure pollutants emitted by cars while they are being driven on the road, unlike in a laboratory test. The norms may increase the cost of producing diesel vehicles by nearly Rs 75,000 to Rs 80,000, and petrol-powered ones by Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000, analysts said.
Passenger and commercial vehicle prices are expected to rise as automobile companies invest in upgrading vehicles to meet stricter emission norms that kick in from April next year. The Indian automobile industry is currently working to make their products meet the second phase of Bharat Stage VI, equivalent to Euro-VI emission norms, in real time driving conditions. Four-wheeler passenger and commercial vehicles will need more sophisticated equipment to be added to meet the next level of emission standards.
Most brokerages are betting that the new government will shift to a policy focussing on boosting rural incomes and consumption since that has clearly been a pain point.
The government has raised the prices of natural gas by more than double to $4.20 per mmBtu, leading to a hike in power and fertiliser production costs. However, a hike in CNG rates will come into effect only from next week.
Eicher Motors is a leader in the premium motorcycle segment, where it holds market share of over 85 per cent under the Royal Enfield (RE) brand. The company's joint venture VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) with Volvo, where it holds 54.5 per cent stake, gives it a strong footing in commercial vehicles (CVs). The company had good results in FY23 and it has a strong balance sheet and good operating margins.
The hike in prices of these items has come about over and above milk, onion, garlic, and other vegetables which have become expensive in the past few weeks.
RIL has been selling gas from KG-D6 at the same price since it started production in April 2009.
Last month, the government approved the proposal of doubling gas price from RIL's KG basin from $4.2 mmbtu to $8.4 mmbtu from April 1, 2014.
Maruti is sticking to this strategy at a time when rival Hyundai is looking to make the most of the monopoly it will have in the compact diesel segment from April 1, 2020, when the BSVI emission norms kick in. The market leader's confidence stems from the rapid shift in favour of petrol in the PV segment. For newer models such as MG Hector and Seltos, nearly 75 per cent bookings are for petrol variants, Kia has 55 per cent from petrol variants. The change in customer preference from diesel variants to petrol has happened quickly over the past few years.
The total investor wealth in domestic stock markets soared by Rs 1.53 lakh crore as investors cheered energy reforms, including hike in natural gas prices.
Indian automakers dispatched nearly 2.92 lakh passenger vehicles, the highest ever for February so far, driven by strong demand for cars and utility vehicles, industry body SIAM said on Friday. The total passenger vehicle dispatches from companies to dealers last month increased 11 per cent to 2,91,928 units from 2,62,984 units in February 2022. Passenger car sales rose to 1,42,201 units in February against 1,33,572 units in the year-ago period.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs may this week decide to price all domestically produced natural gas as per a formula suggested by a panel headed by Prime Minister's economic advisor C Rangarajan.
Increase in taxes on luxury cars will not have any effect on the demand
Auto companies are now grappling with a slowdown in sales, triggered by pent up demand due to the COVID-led lockdown easing a bit and supply-side issues for raw material.
While consumers feel that petrol pinches directly, diesel hurts indirectly, as it is an input in almost all the goods and services we use.
Maruti Ciaz and Ertiga are exempt from the infrastructure cess and so, there is no change in the prices of these models.
Aerated drinks, mineral water, travel packages, coaching classes and beauty parlour services might also cost more
The company, which already has around 66 per cent market share in the hatchback segment and about 50 per cent in the overall domestic passenger vehicle segment, currently sells Vitara Brezza and S-Cross in the SUV segment. In an interaction with PTI, MSI managing director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa acknowledged that there was some lag in launching new products due to the pandemic but the company is now on track regarding new model launches.
