Narendra Modi's landslide victory gives him the mandate to deregulate diesel prices as well as raise natural gas rates with a clear road map towards free pricing to cut subsidies and shrink the budget deficit.
A prime minister-appointed expert group, headed by Kirit Parikh, suggested on Wednesday freeing petrol and diesel prices and suggested raising liquid petroleum gas rates by a steep Rs 100 per cylinder and kerosene by Rs 6 a litre.
"Oil companies are still losing money. . .Please pray that prices come down further so that we can consider reducing fuel prices," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told reporters.
IOC, in the annual performance memorandum it signs with the petroleum ministry, stated that the Navratna oil companies should be granted freedom to fix retail selling price of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene.
Indian Oil Corporation on Tuesday said it may lose over Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in revenues this fiscal on selling fuel below imported cost.
The Aadhar card will be optional for availing various welfare schemes of the government, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday and ordered that no personal information of the holders of such cards shall be shared by any authority.
Minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Jitin Prasada in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said the finance ministry is yet to approve the oil bonds. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum lost Rs 11,853 crore (Rs 118.53 billion) in revenues on not being allowed to raise LPG and kerosene prices in line with the cost during April- September.
Addressing the Indian diaspora at the end of his two-day visit to Qatar, Modi said, "We have only cleaned up the0020surface (on corruption) and a detailed clean-up remains."
Officials said the oil marketing companies had provided data to the Income Tax department.
Two persons were killed in the violence, which also left more than 60 people, including police personnel, injured.
A 47-year-old Congress worker on Saturday died after he set himself ablaze near Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, the police said. The deceased, Ravichandran, residing at Sirkali came out of his house on Friday night, doused himself with kerosene and set himself ablaze, shouting pro-Sri Lankan Tamil slogans.
It hopes to enter the business in 9-15 months. "We have plans to enter diesel generator, petrol, LPG and kerosene segment, but it will be too early to comment on any specific deal," said Kalyan Bhattacharya, president and CEO, Birla Power Solutions. "The size of the acquisition will depend on the horse power of the engines manufactured by the company. BPSL is looking at a company manufacturing diesel engines of capacities ranging between 25 horse power and 200 horse power."
Twenty school children were injured, one of them seriously, when their school bus caught fire at Navi Mumbai on Thursday morning.
All goods and services have been put in slabs of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%
If the current trend continues, diesel will be deregulated in three months.
IOC, BPCL and HPCL on Thursday afternoon stopped ATF supplies to Air India at six airports - Kochi, Pune, Patna, Ranchi, Vizag and Mohali - over payment defaults. AI flights from these places were tanking up from other airports.
Public sector oil firms have seen losses on fuel sale widening to about Rs 170 crore (Rs 1.7 billion) per day on firming international oil prices and may end the fiscal with over Rs 49,000 crore (Rs 490 billion) in revenue loss.
State-run fuel retailers are losing about Rs 135 crore (Rs 1.35 billion) per day on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene and the government is looking at proposals to make up for these losses, a senior official said.
For the first time in seven months, state-run fuel retailers are making losses on selling diesel and together with negative returns on petrol, LPG and kerosene, the companies may lose Rs 38,700 crore (Rs 387 billion) in revenues this year.
The Budget emphasises on capacity building and empowerment of marginalised sections of society including farmers.
In fresh incidents of attacks on Christian places of worship in Karnataka, some unidentified persons burnt religious books belonging to a church in Ujire and also damaged furniture at a church in Chikamagalur district and statue of Mother Mary at Kolar. According to authorities of the St George Church in Ujire, a group of miscreants destroyed the Holy Bible, prayer books, statues and icons in the church and poured kerosene over the carpet.
Petroleum minister Murli Deora discussed the idea of levy of $0.20 per million British thermal unit as cess on natural gas to mop up Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) annually for laying down the gas pipeline network with CEOs of state-run firms. The brainstorming session called to chalk out the 100-day plan for the new government also decided on launching a new Scheme of Rural LPG Distributor (Gramin LPG Vitrak), petroleum secretary R S Pandey said.
The firms were till last month selling diesel at a profit of 32 paise a litre, which helped them partly neutralise the losses on the sale of petrol, domestic LPG and kerosene. But from Monday, IOC, BPCL and HPCL are at breakeven on diesel while they lose Rs 3.68 a litre on petrol, Rs 69.49 per 14.2-kg LPG cylinder and Rs 12.65 on every litre of kerosene, industry sources said.
International crude oil prices crossed the $60 a barrel mark yesterday--up from a record low of $32.40 in December last year--on the back of improved sentiment over the economic recovery, especially in China and Europe.
State-run oil refiners are likely to report profits on daily sale of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene in the fortnight ending December 31, after average crude oil prices have been nearly 3 per cent lower and the rupee has appreciated 3.2 per cent compared with the first fortnight of this month.
Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd are projected to lose around Rs 1,15,500 crore (Rs 1,155 billion) during the year as they sold petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas at below production costs when crude oil prices rose steadily between April and July this year to reach a peak of $147 a barrel in early July.
The Nagas, who inhabit the hills, feel the Manipur (Hill Area) District Council Act (Third Amendment) 2008, under which the election was to have been held, takes away the powers of the tribal people.
The under-realisation on fuel sales reported by the country's oil companies is overstated by as much as 15 per cent, according to experts, though this does not mean that the oil companies are making profits on selling subsidised petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene.
The petroleum ministry has sought additional oil bonds worth about Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) to cover the revenue loss on fuel sale in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal.
The ministerial group is to look into pricing of some essential commodities, including petrol, diesel, domestic cooking gas and PDS kerosene. The GoM also includes Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister T R Baalu and Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Pawar.
Jaswant Singh, a 35 year-old vegetable seller, sprinkled kerosene on his body and set himself ablaze at his shop in the presence of dozens of people while chanting Bum bum bholay in Gagwal village of Kathua district, official sources said in Jammu.
The Reserve Bank of India on Monday said the steps initiated by the government in recent weeks are expected to help control inflation and inflationary expectations. Listing out the possible pressure points, including high oil prices that are expected to stay at elevated levels, the RBI report on Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments in 2007-08 noted that inflation risks due to petroleum prices remained incipient.
State-run retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL may lose about Rs 45,000 crore (Rs 450 billion) on selling auto and cooking fuels below cost this fiscal, two-third of which will be compensated by the government by issuing bonds.
The retail losses that the country's oil marketing companies incur on sale of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene at subsidised prices have risen by 7.3 per cent to around Rs 440 crore (Rs 4.4 billion) per day in the fortnight ended March 31.IOC lost Rs 17 for every litre of petrol it sold, up from Rs 14.65 a litre on March 15. It lost Rs 316 per 14.2-kg cylinder, compared with Rs 303.65 per cylinder in the previous fortnight.
The prime minister made the reference about the functioning of the Parliament against the backdrop of the virtual washout of its Monsoon session over various issues.
IOC and sister PSUs Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are losing Rs 4.60 on sale of every litre of petrol and Rs 2.33 per litre of diesel currently, IOC director (marketing) G C Dagga told reporters in New Delhi.
The government has cut petrol price by Rs 5 and diesel by 2 a litre with effect from midnight tonight.
"Petrol margins will turn positive from Saturday. Based on the average crude price of second fortnight of October, it (margin) should be around Rs 4 a litre," IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria told reporters. However, the company would continue to make losses on diesel sales at about Rs 1 a litre.
In a shocking incident, an 11-year-old girl was set ablaze by a relative in Japur, who was apparently enraged with her being 'scantily dressed' and wearing a lipstick, police said on Saturday. The girl identified as Nazmeen suffered 90 per cent burns and was stated to be in a critical condition, Investigating Officer Shammi Khan said.
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