Gandhi said that the BJP government has clearly mishandled the economy that was built by the United Progressive Alliance government, and is now resorting to selling the country's assets as a "last resort" to generate some money.
This will encompass the sale of Air India, a number of other privatisation initiatives, mergers, initial public offerings, the Centre's two exchange-traded funds, buybacks and offers-for-sale, and even monetisation of land assets.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the government and the public sector units will retain their first claim on the Central Industrial Security Force cover even after its services are extended to the private sector.Chidambaram said the CISF security cover would not be extended to the private sector overnight as the force has to be expanded.The service will be available to the private sector after the government makes a risk analysis.
The three firms had planned to jointly buy or lease plantations and related units for producing ethanol, a by-product of sugarcane that is doped in petrol to reduce dependence on imported oil. The three firms have suffered a Rs 14,700-crore (Rs 147 billion) net loss in the first-half of the current fiscal and were living on borrowed money as they lost heavily on retail fuel sales domestically.
Nearly 30 per cent of petrol pumps in Delhi and about 100 in Mumbai went without petrol and diesel, while there is a minimum 7-day wait period for delivery of domestic LPG gas. Meanwhile, after Delhi and Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra invoked ESMA to ensure uninterrupted fuel supplies.
Public sector oil firms spent over Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) on advertisements during the last three years with Indian Oil Corp topping the list with an expenditure of Rs 275.35 crore.
The combined debt of Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum has risen to Rs 115,000 crore (Rs 1,150 billion) as they borrowed to make up for revenue losses on fuel sales during the first half of the current fiscal.
The advertisement and circulation revenue had already declined due to recession and the digital onslaught, it noted.
sharper-than-expected economic recovery back home, analysts say, can fuel a further rally in domestic cyclicals, industrials, and financials as global central banks continue with their easy money policy.
After the government sought Parliament's nod for a second batch of supplementary demand for grants that will cause a hit of Rs 2.99 trillion to the exchequer, doubts suddenly arose about the government's ability to meet the Budget projections of reining in its fiscal deficit at 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), or Rs 15.06 trillion, for the current financial year. Till now, many were of the opinion that the government would succeed in checking the deficit at a much lower figure than what was given in the Budget Estimates (BE). The government had sought Parliament's approval to spend Rs 3.74 trillion extra, but Rs 74,517.01 crore will be matched by equal savings on other heads.
Expects to raise Rs 9,300 crore from Indian Oil share sale on Monday
The UPA-II may not talk about this, but it continues to implement its programme to revive ailing PSUs by investing fresh capital.
The government is likely to give public sector oil firms limited autonomy to fix petrol and diesel prices within a narrow price band once international markets stablise, Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Monday.
Inflation targeting has worked well and the government must stay with it, and the framework is going to work well in the period ahead also, former RBI Governor D Subbarao said on Thursday. He also said low inflation contributes to sustainable growth. Addressing the 'Times Network India Economic Conclave' virtually, Subbarao said the government's proposal to privatise some public sector units is not akin to selling family silver but it is a route for putting India on a sustainable growth path.
Basket of crude up 6%, while rupee has depreciated nearly 14% leading to losses
The five-way joint venture that also includes Hindustan Petroleum, Oil India Ltd and GAIL India, which had in October 2007 inked a preliminary MoU for the project, are looking at 4-5 year horizon from the zero date for commissioning the project. To start with, it will be an export refinery but in long-term some products will cater to Indian market.
'The business continuity clause will mean the Tatas will have to keep running the airline for three years, and cannot exit the flying business.'
Many corporates lack listing governance norms, says NSE
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.
Private airlines Jet Airways and Kingfisher owe state-owned oil firms over Rs 1,774 crore (Rs 17.74 billion) in unpaid jet fuel bills, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada said on Thursday.
Some of the top PSUs may have pulled out of the Commonwealth Games in the wake of corruption allegations, but Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi is unperturbed, saying he is confident of making up the deficit through the private sector.
While divestment through IPOs saw an over 90 per cent drop as compared to the previous financial year, the exchange traded fund (ETF) route proved to be a shot in the arm for the government, reports Sundar Sethuraman.
Election will be held in 60 out of the total 294 seats in the first two phases of the eight-phased polls which is slated to stretch from March 27 to April 29. The date for the second phase of election is April 1.
Without the handsome receipts from the sale of government equity in PSUs and sharp increases in excise revenues from oil, Mr Jaitley's fiscal consolidation drive would have become even more arduous, says A K Bhattacharya.
This apart, to further increase capacities, Bharat Biotech has partnered with Indian Immunologicals (IIL) to manufacture the drug substance for Covaxin. The technology transfer process is underway and IIL has the 'capabilities and expertise' to manufacture the inactivated viral vaccines at commercial scale.
Other companies which are on the block include NMDC, NALCO and IOC.
Monetising real estate assets is part of the overall relief package that would be used to retire debts, upgrade networks, and offer VRS aimed at reducing the telcos' employee strength by half.
A review of three years' audit reports of CAG showed that the state PSUs' losses of Rs 6,072.96 crore (Rs 60.72 billion) were 'controllable' with better management.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided that 10 per cent of the government's stake in Coal India Ltd would be sold. Similarly, the sale of five per cent of its stake in ONGC and 11.4 per cent in the hydropower public-sector unit, NHPC, has been cleared.
The government is likely to go ahead with divestment in 12-15 public sector units, including SAIL, Coal India, Hindustan Copper, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd and Engineers India Ltd among others next fiscal to raise Rs 40,000 crore, as stated in the budget.
Failure to sell Air India, IDBI may have prompted a change in strategy.
Divestment Commission has recommended privatisation of three public sector enterprises, including the Rural Electrification Corporation.
Reliance Industries is seeking about Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) from state-owned oil retailers in unrealised amount on liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene, it sells to them.
After Air India, Britain's Cairn Energy PLC plans to target assets of state-owned firms and banks in countries from the US to Singapore as it looks to ramp up efforts to recover the amount due from the Indian government after winning an arbitration against levy of retrospective taxes. A lawyer representing the company said Cairn will bring lawsuits in several countries to make state-owned firms liable to pay the $1.2 billion plus interest and penalties that are due from the Indian government. Last month, Cairn brought a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York pleading that Air India is controlled by the Indian government so much that they are 'alter egos' and the airline should be held liable for the arbitration award.
D Aravindakshan was the managing director of Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals at Alleppey for many years before taking over as the head of Agastya Biopharma
Public sector giants ONGC, BHEL and GAIL are among the companies short-listed for bidding for majority 51 per cent control of Engineers India Limited, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.
Facing accusations of delay in placing orders for vaccines, the government on Thursday defended its vaccine procurement policy saying it has been pursuing Pfizer, J&J and Moderna since mid-2020 for the earliest possible imports, and has even waived local trials for well-established foreign vaccine makers.
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