They were shut when PSUs were selling heavily subsidised fuel; will reopen now, buoyed by diesel decontrol
Both TMC and CPI-M today walked out from Rajya Sabha opposing fuel price hike.
The fire on a merchant vessel off the Karwar coast has been brought under control after more than 24 hours but one of the ship's 21 crew members was missing, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said on Saturday.
Essar Oil Ltd, India's second largest fuel retailer, has reopened about 350 petrol pumps it was forced to shut down due to heavy losses on matching petrol and diesel prices with hugely-subsidised public sector rates.
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.
Petrol pumps across the country will go on strike from September 20, with a petroleum traders' union warning of "no money, no purchase, no sale..." after talks with the Oil Ministry to hike the rate of commission on fuel sales fell through.
The government has slashed by up to 20 per cent the supplies of cheaper domestically produced natural gas to city retailers -- a move that may result in Rs 4-6 per kg hike in the price of CNG sold to automobiles, unless excise duty on the fuel is cut, sources said. Natural gas pumped from below the ground and from under the seabed from sites ranging from the Arabian Sea to Bay of Bengal within India is the raw material that is turned into CNG for sale to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households.
The decision, set to be implemented from August 1, had met with fierce opposition from pump owners.
Facing difficulties in daily operations due to constant increase of fuel prices by oil marketing companies, the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers' Association have threatened to go on a one-day strike.
Banks and oil companies are in discussions as to who should bear these charges, it said a day after averting a crisis that would have hit millions of people as oil pump owners threatened to stop taking card payments.
After Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner bp plc of the UK, Nayara Energy - the nation's largest private fuel retailer - has started selling petrol and diesel at Re 1 less than the fuel sold by state-owned retailers, officials said. While state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) continue to hold prices despite a drop in international rates, private fuel retailers have started passing on the benefit to consumers. "To further stimulate domestic consumption and cater to local customers better, we have introduced a Re 1 discount in our retail outlets until the end of June 2023," a spokesperson for Nayara Energy said.
The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Friday said it is recalling 1,81,754 units of petrol trims of various models, including Ciaz, Vitara Brezza and XL6, to replace faulty motor generator unit. This is the company's largest vehicle recall till date. As a responsible corporate, keeping in mind customer safety, the company has announced to proactively undertake a recall of some petrol variants of Ciaz, Ertiga, Vitara Brezza, S-Cross and XL6, MSI said in a regulatory filing.
India will switch to the world's cleanest petrol and diesel from April 1 as it leapfrogs straight to Euro-VI emission compliant fuels from Euro-IV grades now -- a feat achieved in just three years and not seen in any of the large economies around the globe. India will join the select league of nations using petrol and diesel containing just 10 parts per million of sulphur as it looks to cut vehicular emissions that are said to be one of the reasons for the choking pollution in major cities.
Truck drivers protesting against a provision in the new penal law on hit-and-run road accidents, called off their strike in Nashik district of Maharashtra on Tuesday after the local authorities assured to look into their demands.
The 100-foot-tall illegal billboard fell at a petrol pump in Ghatkopar during dust storms and unseasonal rains that lashed Mumbai on Monday.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India is recalling about one lakh units of its flagship export model 'A-Star' to replace a faulty fuel pump part. The company is replacing a faulty rubber gasket in about one lakh cars -- manufactured before August 2009 and sold in domestic as well as overseas markets, to prevent any possible fuel leakage.
On the exports front, Bajaj is under pressure in Bangladesh and Africa. On the domestic front, it could ride improvement in rural demand and new launches but it also has to cope with competitive intensity and a high base. The management projects 7-8 per cent volume growth in domestic 2W in financial year 2025 (FY25) with moderation in H2FY25 due to a high base Y-o-Y.
India's largest refiner, Reliance Industries Ltd, is in talks with public sector oil marketer Hindustan Petroleum Corporation for a tie-up to run the former's fuel retail outlets, closed a year earlier.HPCL has issued a limited tender to five merchant bankers to advise it on the deal.Last year, RIL closed 1,400 petrol pumps -- 900 owned by the company and the rest managed by dealers.
They are already on a two-day no-purchase strike since yesterday, won't work Sundays and govt holidays
In New Delhi, state Congress president Anil Kumar and party workers were detained by police at a petrol pump near Parmanand hospital.
Do you think the petrol dealers are right in their demands? Or should they not go on a strike? Or is the Maharashtra government to blame for this crisis?
'Pump prices of petrol and diesel have reached historical highs. An unwinding of taxes on petroleum products by both the Centre and the states could ease the cost-push pressures,' the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has said.
National oil companies are staring at inventory losses as they have to bring down refinery throughputs because of the plunging demand for fuels following the nationwide lockdown to contain the deadly coronavirus infection. India is the world's third-largest energy consumer but the lockdown has shut businesses, suspended flights, stopped trains and brought almost the entire vehicular movement to a halt, impacting fuel demand.
McLaren gave their rivals something to chew over on Tuesday as Jenson Button kicked off Formula One's pre-season testing with a lap comfortably quicker than anyone else's.
Several BJP-backed state governments have unveiled schemes targeting the poor, women, farmers and students, following the party's setback in the Lok Sabha polls.
India has already pipped Japan as the world's third-largest oil consumer.
The government on Tuesday increased the windfall profit tax on crude oil produced in the country and reduced the levy on exports of diesel. The tax, levied in the form of Special Additional Excise Duty or SAED, on domestically produced crude oil was increased to Rs 9,800 per tonne from Rs 9,050 a tonne, according to an official notification. SAED on the export of diesel was reduced to Rs 2 per litre from Rs 4 a litre and on jet fuel or ATF to nil from Rs 1, the notification said.
The oil crisis could not have come at a worse time for the Modi government as its tax collection has fallen short of its 2020-2021 target by Rs 5.2 lakh crore.
The Ruias-managed Essar Oil is fast catching up with Reliance Industries in the number of petrol pumps set up by private sector retailers.
Almost all petrol pumps across the country on Monday went on a day-long strike to press for hike in commission on sale of petrol and diesel even as handful of company-owned outlets tried to meet fuel needs of the people.
The petrol pump dealers, led by Federation of All Maharashtra Petrol Dealers, maintained that they would keep the 'dry' outlets open since its members are 'unable to purchase fuel for want of money.'
Goods transporters and petrol dealers association in Maharashtra claimed on Wednesday that they were being denied fuel at petrol pumps which could impact prices of commodities. "Our vehicles across the state are getting only about 70 per cent of the fuel and as a result of which they are being delayed (to reach destinations)," Prakash Gavali, president of the Maharashtra Rajya Truck Tempo Tankers Bus Vahtuk Mahasangh, which represents transporters, said.
Company will be engaged in the manufacturing, distribution, marketing and retailing of waste to bio-diesel, a non-petroleum based fuel.
Officials from State-run refiners contend that savings from purchase of Russian oil are used to offset a part of the losses in revenues from selling transport fuels and LPG at State-set rates.
The price of diesel sold to bulk users has been hiked by about Rs 25 per litre in line with a near 40 per cent rise in international oil prices, but retail rates at petrol pumps remain unchanged, sources said. Petrol pump sales have jumped by a fifth this month after bulk users like bus fleet operators and malls queued up at petrol bunks to buy fuel rather than the usual practice of ordering directly from oil companies, widening the losses of retailers. Worst hit are private retailers like Nayara Energy, Jio-bp and Shell, who have so far refused to curtail any volume despite a surge in sales.
Maruti Udyog Ltd on Wednesday launched a new loyalty programme for its customers, which will see the company issue an autocard in partnership with IOC and Citibank.
A tough initial lockdown was imposed beginning March 25 but dreams of a V-shaped recovery after it was eased in May have been obliterated by a surge in cases and new lockdowns.
The incident took place near Magdalla Port on Dumas road when a large number of truck drivers blocked the road demanding withdrawal of the new law on hit-and-run cases, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-6) Rajesh Parmar said.
Indian Oil Corporation, the country's largest petroleum product marketer, has already started selling only premium fuels in nearly 25 of the 50 fuel stations it has in Mumbai, and in almost 10 of 50 outlets in Delhi. Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation are also planning to follow IOC's example.
