Indian Railways has decided to hike freight rates by 7.7 per cent from November 27 following the rise in diesel and steel prices, according to a government official.
"The UPA government showed its anti-people stance by increasing the prices of essential goods," said former AP chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.
The economic growth may have slowed to 3.5 per cent in fourth quarter of 2021-22 from 5.4 per cent in the previous three-month period due to the impact of higher commodity prices on margins, decline in wheat yields and on higher base, Icra Ratings said on Monday. The agency said the hiccups in the recovery of the contact-intensive services attributable to the third wave of Covid-19 in the country may have also affected the economic growth in the quarter. Even the gross value added (GVA) at basic prices (at constant 2011-12 prices) in Q4 FY2022 seems to have eased to 2.7 per cent from 4.7 per cent in Q3 FY2022, it said.
The Maharashtra government has decided to reduce the value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 3 per litre respectively, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said in Mumbai on Thursday.
No immediate comment was available from airlines on the impact of the price hike on passenger fares.
'When you need to revive the economy, when you need to revive aggregate demand, you cut taxes.' 'But what's this government doing?' 'It's increasing taxes for the middle class and the vast majority of the poor on fuel, which has a ratchet effect on most other products.'
Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party government for spurt in prices of essential commodities during its 45-day rule, Opposition Congress on Monday took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for riding to power on promise of controlling inflation yet doing nothing on it.
The fuel reforms are a very important signal of the government's commitment to tough economic reforms.
The World Bank has suggested that cess on petrol and diesel be doubled to Rs 3 per litre to partly generate Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1,000 billion) needed by 2011 for constructing roads and highways in the country.
Sounding a note of caution, the Reserve Bank said on Friday said there is a risk of high wholesale price inflation (WPI) putting pressure on the retail inflation, albeit with a lag. In its annual report, the RBI said that the cost-push pressures from high industrial raw material prices, transportation costs and global logistics, and supply chain bottlenecks continue to impinge on core inflation. "The substantial wedge between wholesale and retail price inflation amidst a sharp rise in manufactured products' inflation poses the risk of a possible passthrough of input cost pressures to retail inflation with a lag, although slack in the economy is muting the pass-through," the central bank noted.
The government is likely to decide this week on a hike of Rs 2 to Rs 3 a litre in the prices of petrol and diesel, but spare kerosene and cooking gas prices from any increase.
Hyundai Motor India expects its SUV range to gain further traction in the domestic market with demand for personal mobility gaining momentum post the second wave of COVID-19, according to a senior company official. The company, which already leads the SUV space with models like Venue, Creta, Tucson and recently launched Alcazar, is looking to maintain its lead in the segment which is growing with each passing month.
Noting that oil prices had gone down after the BJP-led government came to power in May 2014, before they went up, Prasad said it is a problem whose solution is not in its hands.
While India won't be immune to global spillovers, we need to create the macro preconditions for sustained growth. Policy agility, prudence, and resilience will be key, suggests Sonal Varma.
The Congress said that a chief minister "has to be always happy".
IOC along with HPCL and BPCL took a hit of about Rs 4,500 crore from absorbing Re 1 a litre hike.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu faces a stiff dilemma on whether to raise fares and freight rates in his second Rail Budget.
Opposition said saying it lacked vision and road map to execute ideas.
China has spent half a century plotting to defeat America and in some respects, the Chinese military is already at par with the US armed forces, Haley said in a major policy speech on the economy in the key early primary State of New Hampshire on Friday.
Increase in taxes on luxury cars will not have any effect on the demand
The council decided not to levy any additional tax on small petrol and diesel cars of up to 1200 cc as well as on hybrid ones.
He may not have been declared Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate just yet but Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday seemed to have already donned the mantle when he said the nation would be comparing his speech with that of Prime Minister on Independence Day on Thursday.
Heightened geopolitical uncertainties will lead the Reserve Bank's rate-setting panel to opt for a status quo at the next week's meeting, Axis Bank's chief economist Saugata Bhattacharya said on Monday. Bhattacharya said he had earlier expected a tightening action at the policy meet scheduled for April 6-8 but the increased uncertainties on the geopolitical front due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its impact on commodity prices makes him now think that RBI will defer such an action. He said the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) may hike rates in the second half of FY23 by up to 0.50 per cent.
Diesel in Mumbai costs Rs 79.72 per litre at IOC outlets and Rs 79.79 at BPCL outlets.
The 30-share Sensex gained 321 points to end at 26,430 and the 50-share Nifty surged 100 points to end at 7,879.
Despite the increase, at Rs 64.32 per litre ATF costs less than petrol and diesel.
Irked by angry reactions to his Facebook post on 'World UFO Day' on Wednesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley withdrew the message within hours.
Let alone a discount, they might not even get the model, variant or colour of choice in BS-IV-compliant vehicles.
Upstream firms pay for a portion of fuel subsidies by extending discounts on crude oil they sell to refiners who are forced by the government to sell diesel and cooking fuel at rates lower than cost of production.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said for the first time fiscal deficit target will be met without budgetary cuts.
According to the global financial services major, the Consumer Price Index based inflation is peaking off and is expected to be around 7.5-8 per cent in September.
The price of the Indian basket of crude oil jumped as much as 78 per cent to cross $50 a barrel last week, from a multi-year low of $28 in January.
With just a day left for the budget session of Parliament to wind up, the government finally scored a goal when it passed the Judicial Commission and Constitution Amendement Bills in the Lok Sabha, hurriedly obtained the President's signature in a matter of hours and by late evening brought the Constitution amendment part of the Bill to the Rajya Sabha for consideration.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 46 per cent jump in net profit for the three months ended June on the back of bumper earnings from oil and telecom businesses. The oil-to-retail-to-telecom conglomerate's consolidated net profit rose to Rs 17,955 crore during April-June period -- the first quarter of 2022-23 fiscal year -- from Rs 12,273 crore in the year-ago period, it said a stock exchange filing.
