Cheque payments will be safer; the limit for contactless card transactions hiked.
This is the tenth hike in the price of petrol in just over a year. With this hike, inflation is likely to rise sharply once again.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday termed the hike in rail fares as "unprecedented and anti-people" and demanded its roll back in the interest of common people.
It is the seventh reduction in jet fuel rates since August
Facing criticism for increasing the retail price of petrol, government-owned Indian Oil Corporation has said the desired increase was actually Rs 3.72 a litre but it chose to "soften the impact on customer" by increasing the price by only Rs 2.50 a litre.
The Union government has collected Rs 94,181 crore through levy of excise duty on petrol and diesel in the first three months of the current fiscal on the back of a record tax on fuel that yielded 88 per cent higher revenue the previous financial year, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday. Excise duty on petrol was hiked from Rs 19.98 per litre to Rs 32.9 last year to recoup gain arising from international oil prices plunging to multi-year low as pandemic gulped demand. The same on diesel was raised to Rs 31.8 from Rs 15.83 a litre, according to a written reply by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli in the Lok Sabha. This led to excise collections on petrol and diesel jumping to Rs 3.35 lakh crore in 2020-21 (April 2020 to March 2021), from Rs 1.78 lakh crore a year back, he said.
A new formula for pricing natural gas in the domestic market was determined; the decontrol of diesel prices was announced; and the scheme that directly transferred subsidies to bank accounts of users of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders was modified and relaunched.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's biggest oil firm, on Tuesday reported a 31.4 per cent drop in the fourth quarter net profit as record refining margins were wiped away by a margin squeeze in petrochemicals and losses on auto fuel sales. Standalone net profit of Rs 6,021.88 crore, or Rs 6.56 a share, in January-March, compared with Rs 8,781.30 crore, or Rs 9.56 per share, in the same period a year back, the company said in a stock exchange filing. Sequentially, the profit was higher than Rs 5,860.80 crore in the previous quarter.
Every dollar increase in crude oil price will add Rs 4,000 crore to the overall underrecovery.
According to DMK, the voters are already consolidated on ideological lines, hence the impact of anti-incumbency, whether against the BJP Centre or the DMK state may not be too much, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Let Modi not be in the news, I will stop making cartoons on him.'
Increase in taxes on luxury cars will not have any effect on the demand
The Shiv Sena has spurned Congress' request to participate in the bandh.
The government has raised the security deposit paid by consumers for new LPG connection to Rs 850 per cylinder following higher prices paid by the distributors in procuring cylinders.
Petrol prices may be cut by as much as Rs 1-1.50 per litre next week on falling international oil rates and appreciating rupee but a one-time hike in diesel and possibly LPG rates is still on the cards.
Sharp reactions met the government's decision to enforce the single-steepest hike in fuel prices on Wednesday, and it came under attack from its allies as well as opposition parties.
From road transport to health insurance, tax rules have changed from October 1.
In the sixth such hike in three months, petrol price has been increased by a steep Rs 2.35 per litre and diesel by 50 paise per litre on falling rupee and firming international oil prices.
The government's subsidies on food, fertilisers and petroleum are estimated to decline by 39 per cent to Rs 4,33,108 crore this fiscal and fall further by 27 per cent to nearly Rs 3.18 lakh crore in 2022-23. In its revised Budget (RE) estimate for the 2021-22 fiscal, the government has pegged total subsidies to be at Rs 4,33,108 crore against the actual Budget estimate of Rs 7,07,707 crore in the previous financial year. Out of which, the food subsidy is estimated to decline to Rs 2,86,469 crore in the current fiscal from Rs 5,41,330 crore in 2020-21, while petroleum subsidy is estimated to fall to Rs 6,517 crore from Rs 38,455 crore in the said period.
Financial assistance of Rs 25,000 to one lakh persons going on pilgrimage to major Hindu temples, increase in maternity leave period and assistance, cut in fuel prices and steps to ban National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) were the various promises made by the Dravidian party.
If June 2010 diesel price is taken as the base, then the increase is a mere 2 per cent. By contrast, petrol prices have gone up by 23 per cent in the same period.
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam believes India can transform herself into a developed nation by the year 2020. The young people of India, headed by a creative leader, can help us reach this goal, says the former President.
Maruti Ciaz and Ertiga are exempt from the infrastructure cess and so, there is no change in the prices of these models.
For the first time in more than a decade, diesel demand has declined this fiscal as monthly price hikes and increased power generation clipped consumption, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Chairman R S Butola said.
The fuel reforms are a very important signal of the government's commitment to tough economic reforms.
A day before the crucial meeting of the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party on Tuesday which is scheduled to take a call on the hiked diesel price, cap on subsidized LPG and FDI in multi-brand retail, party chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday hit out at a section of the media for disseminating "distorted and concocted information".
If the current trend continues, diesel will be deregulated in three months.
The United Progressive Alliance government has become a symbol of "heartless government" as it has failed to understand the pains of inflation borne by the common man, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley said on Friday.
The relentless rise in international oil prices that last week touched an all time high of $135 a barrel has forced the government to mull options to save state-run firms, which expect a revenue loss of Rs 200,000 crore (Rs 2000 billion) this fiscal on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene.
The markets look weak. It could further fall as main support levels are being broken effortlessly, says market expert Pranav Sanghavi. In the short term the markets will remain volatile and weak. But over one year outlook, some of the quality fundamentally strong stocks could be looked at.
With the rupee continuing to remain weak against the US dollar, losses on diesel have climbed to Rs 9.45 per litre, upsetting the government's subsidy maths.
Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation are losing Rs 486 crore (Rs 4.86 billion) per day as they are made to sell diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene way below cost to keep inflation under check.
India, which imports over 80 per cent of its oil needs, spent $87.7 billion on importing 220.43 million tonne (MT) of crude oil in 2017-18. For 2018-19, the imports are pegged at almost 227 MT.
Profit on sale of diesel swelled to Rs 1.90 per litre as oil ministry awaits return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cut rates.
The Budget session of Parliament on Monday got off to a stormy start with the first day in Lok Sabha being virtually washed out on the issue of price rise and rail fare hike as a strident Opposition insisted on a discussion under an adjournment motion.
Petrol prices on Thursday crossed Rs 73 a litre mark, the highest level since the BJP government came to power in 2014, while diesel touched a record high of Rs 64.11 a litre.
The growth, however, may not indicate a major revival of economic activity.
Aerated drinks, mineral water, travel packages, coaching classes and beauty parlour services might also cost more
Diesel prices are raised every month by up to 50 paise per litre to trim the losses. Rates were last raised on August 1 after which losses had dipped to Rs 1.33.
Petrol, that had in April/May witnessed 11-12 per cent growth in consumption, in fact saw a six per cent fall in demand at 8,02,500 tons in June, oil ministry officials said.
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