The Ministry Of Petroleum and Natural Gas has ruled out a hike in the prices of petrol and diesel in the near future even as the price of the Indian basket of crude oil continues to remain above $65 a barrel.
The recent petrol and diesel price hike by the government did not go down well with the common people who expressed their\ndispleasure over this pre-Budget move. The prices were raised by as much as 10 per cent on Wednesday.
According to police, CPI-M legislator K Bhimrao and other party supporters were arrested from Guindy railway station in Chennai.
India should learn to live with high energy prices for rapid economic growth, said Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia after two of the state-owned oil companies hiked petrol rates this week.
The information technology and telecom ministries spent a whopping Rs 53.14 lakh on petrol in two years, according to a RTI report.
Centre and state governments are steadily increasing excise duties and value-added tax
The government is unlikely to take up the issue of reducing petrol, diesel and domestic LPG prices on Thursday as consultations on petroleum ministry's simultaneous proposal for freeing auto fuel pricing were not complete.
State-owned oil firms on Tuesday decreased retail selling price of petrol and diesel by up to Rs 1.08 and Rs 1.18 per litre, respectively, in step with the global softening of crude prices.
With vast disparity in fuel prices, the demand for diesel cars had reached upto 85 per cent and petrol cars had come down to 15 per cent, which otherwise usually remained at 50:50 per cent levels in India.
After slamming the Centre for the steep hike in petrol price, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday hit the streets in Kolkata, leading a massive protest march to put pressure on the United Progressive Alliance government for a roll-back. Banerjee, who was accompanied by Railway Minister Mukul Roy, party functionaries and thousands of Trinamool Congress workers, marched from Jadavpur to Hazra crossing, a distance of five km in south Kolkata.
Diesel price hike is a tough decision and we need lot of tough decisions to get to 8 per cent growth rate," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh told reporters.
Hardening prices of manufactured items during the month may refrain the Reserve Bank of India from cutting rates in its policy review on February 8.
Petrol doped with 20 per cent ethanol was rolled out on Monday at select petrol pumps in 11 states and union territories as part of a programme to increase use of biofuels to cut emissions as well as dependence on foreign exchange-draining imports. At present, 10 per cent ethanol is blended in petrol (10 per cent ethanol, 90 per cent petrol) and the government is looking to double this quantity by 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the higher 20 per cent ethanol blended petrol two months ahead of the planned rollout in April, at the India Energy Week (IEW) 2023 in Bengaluru.
Making a case for increasing prices of petroleum products and deregulating diesel prices, the Reserve Bank on Monday said these steps are necessary to contain fiscal slippages and arrest decline in growth.
The petroleum ministry has proposed a Rs 3.25 per litre hike in petrol and about Rs 4 per litre increase in diesel prices in line with the spurt in global crude oil prices that have touched $66 a barrel.
Buckling under pressure, the government on Wednesday cut the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 10 respectively to bring down retail rates from record highs. The announcement comes on the eve of Diwali which will help bring down the skyrocketing prices of fuel and provide some relief to the common man battling inflation.
Oil marketing cos rightly passed on the burden to buyers.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs will meet this evening to decide on the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene, petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said.
Government earlier this month cut petrol price by Rs 5 a litre and diesel by Rs 2 per litre as crude oil prices dipped from an all-time high of $147 a barrel in July to under $45 a barrel. Even after the price cut, public sector oil firms were making a profit of Rs 9.98 on sale of every litre of petrol and Rs 1.03 per litre on diesel.
BJP-ruled Maharashtra levies 46.52 per cent VAT (47.64 per cent in Mumbai) on petrol, the highest in the country.
For the first time in the history of India, state-run oil firms on Saturday passed on the benefit of appreciating rupee value to consumers by way of a 10 paise per litre cut in petrol and diesel prices.
The government is unlikely to hike prices of petrol and diesel at the next revision due on August 31 despite the surge in crude oil prices.
Former Petroleum Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Naik on Wednesday flayed the Congress-led government for raising the LPG prices, saying the burden on the common man could have been avoided by cutting duties.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Saturday strongly supported the view that petroleum prices in the country should "align with the global price."
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday announced country wide protest programme for two days beginning Wednesday against the hike in the prices of petroleum products.
The proposed move would lead to dismantling of the administered price mechanism.
Left parties on Monday opposed any increase in petrol and diesel prices in step with the hike in global oil prices and higher taxes, and asked the government to restructure duties to protect the consumers.
The government on Monday said it would not free diesel prices from its control in hurry as the move would lead to sharp rise in price of fuel most used in the transport sector.
Concerned over crude oil prices touching a record $64 a barrel in the international market, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday said the Cabinet will decide on raising domestic fuel prices in line with the spurt.
The government on Thursday decided not to increase petrol and diesel prices, and issue oil bonds worth Rs 23,457 crore (Rs 234.57 billion) to partly compensate public sector oil companies for the losses incurred on fuel sales."We have kept our promise of not raising prices of sensitive petroleum products," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told PTI after a meeting of the Cabinet.
A higher government borrowing will 'crowd-out' the private borrowing and push interest rates higher.
Prices of petrol and diesel will not be reduced immediately as oil companies continue to make losses even after the recent fall in international oil prices, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday.
The surprise decision of OPEC and its allies, including Russia, to cut oil output may cause an immediate rise in prices, delaying revision in fuel prices in India, industry sources said. The grouping of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, called OPEC+, on Sunday decided to further cut oil output by around 1.16 million barrels. The move led to Brent rising by almost 6 per cent to $84.58 per barrel on Monday.
The rise in petro-product prices have been necessitated by rising global costs of petroleum and the fact that the price of petrol and diesel has not been increased in India since January 2004.
The government is exploring various options, including a marginal hike in prices of petrol and diesel, and a possible duty cut to ease burden on state-run oil firms that are increasingly losing revenue due to global crude prices surging close to $100 a barrel. "We will do all that is possible to protect the interests of our PSUs," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said after a brief meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue on Friday.
Perhaps for the first time, petrol in India costs more than the superior jet fuel (ATF) used in aeroplanes, as the government has levied a record excise duty on the fuel used in two-wheelers and cars.
