The government indecisiveness on petroleum price rise, coupled with late release of cash subsidy, has sent the borrowings of three government-controlled oil marketing companies to an all-time high of around Rs 118,000 crore (Rs 1,180 billion).
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has said its net profit will drop by over 47 per cent to below Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) this fiscal if the government forces it to shell out a higher fuel subsidy.
'He has a gift none of his eight predecessors, from Manmohan Singh to Rajiv Gandhi, had: Being able to speak directly and convincingly to a large enough section of Indians who will take his word for gospel,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
The price of petrol breached a three-year high on Monday at Rs 74.50 a litre, while the price of diesel was at its highest at Rs 65.75 a litre
'It goes without saying that Air India has now no imaginable reason to exist.'
Of the 170 million rural households in the country, a government website claims to have connected 82 per cent of them. The metered households are 50 per cent of the total. As on February, 2018, of the 780,000 villages to be intensively electrified or provide connection to all in households, 493,000 have been covered. However, the amount and quality of the power supply cannot be ascertained from this data. No clause in any of the rural electrification programmes promises 24 hours' power supply.
In a statement, the CBDT, which is the apex policy making body for direct tax policies, said it has never asked IRS Association or these officers to prepare such a report and no permission was sought by them before making the report public. 'It is unequivocally stated that CBDT never asked IRS Association or these officers to prepare such a report.
In a letter to Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, the Commission said it had received complaints about hoardings with photographs of the prime minister being displayed at petrol pumps in poll-bound Goa.
In the Railways, people in various categories including senior citizens, patients, eminent artists and sportspersons are eligible for availing concessional fare facilities
In a presentation prepared for the incoming Narendra Modi-government, the ministry listed national oil companies losing focus on domestic exploration as well as legal disputes around signed contracts with private explorers among the five things that went wrong during the United Progressive Alliance regime.
UID project was launched by the UPA government in 2009.
Without naming the UPA government, he attacked it over alleged corruption and flagged his government's 'honest' credentials.
The oil ministry is in fact of the view that the government should bear the entire burden of the revenue losses incurred by the oil marketing companies, after the increase in prices is effected.
The expectation that Mr Modi would be a major reformer, capable of reinvigorating the Indian economy, were based on a complete misreading of both his actions and his performance as Gujarat chief minister, says Mihir S Sharma.
India must streamline reforms, only then it will see success.
An empowered group of ministers headed by Defence Minister A K Antony is to consider an Oil Ministry proposal of abolishing the priority ranking according to which natural gas is first given to urea manufacturing fertiliser plants, then to LPG units, followed by power plants, city gas, steel and refineries.
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.
The government has taken a number of steps to stem the depreciation of rupee including moderation in demand of non-essential imports and enhancing supply of capital flows, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.
The PM said the programme will be designed to suit Indian conditions and focus would be on ensuring benefits for the youth from the lowest strata of the society.
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the government would adopt a multi-faceted approach on pricing in all forms of energy including auto fuel, LPG, kerosene and electricity aimed at efficient and rational use of energy resources.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday presented in Parliament the first ever Outcome Budget, which seeks to measure the physical targets achieved on the financial outlays of various ministries.
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.
In a clear move to protect consumers from hardening global oil prices, the government will announce by June 15 a new pricing policy for petrol, diesel and LPG that may include lower duties and targeted subsidies.
Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who as Gujarat chief minister was considered close to certain business groups and industrialists, has hardly been seen with any Indian business head.
Amidst criticism on increasing prices of petroleum products, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday got support from his wife Gursharan Kaur on the issue who asked people to make a 'sacrifice.'
Following is the Facebook post of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on one-year of the BJP-led NDA government.
Petrol price can go down to Rs 75 a litre across the country if brought under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), but there is a lack of political will, which is keeping Indian oil product prices at one of the highest in the world, economists at SBI said on Thursday.
Petroleum Minister Mani Shanker Aiyar will meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday to chalk out the ways and means of mitigating the crisis created by the spurt in crude oil prices.
He said the country has all the capabilities it needs, it just needs opportunities now.
Can Indian youth work on solutions for cyber security?
Three recent initiatives kicked off with renewed vigour to improve governance were actually started, perhaps in a different format by the UPA government.
Moily insisted that no proposal has been moved to the Cabinet for raising diesel rates beyond the 40-50 paise a litre monthly increase, which has been implemented since January.
China's economy is in transition, with rising wage costs and massive overcapacity.
Petrol and diesel prices were hiked for the fourth consecutive day on Saturday by 35 paise per litre, pushing the total increase in rates on petrol to Rs 36 per litre and on diesel to Rs 26.58 since early May 2020 when taxes on the two fuels were raised to record levels. Petrol in Delhi now costs Rs 107.24 a litre and diesel comes for Rs 95.97, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. The latest increase that follows the unrelenting hike in international oil prices has pushed pump rates across the country to their highest-ever levels.
More people will be literate, on the Internet, linked to the national identification scheme and likely to receive electricity, especially from alternative-energy sources.
Around 15 years ago, when Reliance Industries (RIL) struck natural gas in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin off the east coast, the government made plans to supply that fuel cheaply to scores of generators that sprang up in India triggered by the discovery. Most of the plants, which account for 6 per cent of India's total generation capacity, operate sparsely after the KG-D6 area first failed to meet production targets, and then finally shut shop. Affordable domestic gas was why those thermal plants came up and the rate of the fuel today is why those generators hardly operate. Record liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates may yet again unravel India's ambitions to expand use of gas in industries, households and vehicles. Rates, while volatile, may stay strong this decade as developed nations with higher purchasing power embrace gas as the transition fuel.
Low oil prices drove the growth in states' share faster than expected, says Abhishek Waghmare.
The loss, which is made good through government subsidy, has declined since March as the rupee strengthened against the dollar and global oil prices softened.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances