1. Home
  2. Diesel deregulated, prices cut by Rs 3.37 a litre

Diesel deregulated, prices cut by Rs 3.37 a litre

October 18, 2014

New Delhi, Oct 18: In much-awaited reform, the government on Saturday deregulated diesel prices, a move that will result in a price cut of Rs 3.37 a litre with effect from midnight tonight.

Diesel deregulatedFinance Minister Arun Jaitely said the Cabinet in its meeting today decided to deregulate or free diesel prices. Retail rates will now reflect international movement in oil prices.

As a result, rates will be cut by Rs 3.37 a litre with effect from midnight tonight.

This is the first reduction in diesel rates in over five years. Diesel rates were last cut on January 29, 2009 when they were reduced by Rs 2 a litre to Rs 30.86.

Diesel prices were last raised by 50 paisa on September 1 and cumulatively risen by Rs 11.81 per litre in 19 instalments since January 2013.

There couldn't have been more opportune time for the decision. Oil prices are near a four-year low and two major state elections are out of the way.

Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has recently called on the government to "seize this moment", while inflation is the lowest in five years and refiners are selling at a profit for the first time ever.

Brent crude has fallen 25 percent this year to around USD 83 per barrel and expectation is that it may not cross USD 100 barrel anytime soon.

The process was set in motion by the previous UPA government when it eliminated controls on petrol prices in 2010 and in January last year decided to raise diesel prices by up to 50 paisa a litre every month.

The result has been that petrol prices have moved in tandem with global cost and retail rates being reduced on five occasions since August on falling oil rates. Prices have cumulative come down by close to Rs 7 per litre in last two-and-half months.

On diesel, the entire under-recovery or loss has been eliminated and oil firms started making profit from second half of September. The over-recovery or profit has since reached Rs 3.56 per litre.

Deregulation would mean that the government and state-owned explorers including Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) are no longer subsidising diesel.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had budgeted Rs 63,400 crore for petroleum subsidies which was 25 per cent lower than previous fiscal. But unlike past, the subsidy bill is unlikely to overshoot the budgeted amount due to fall in oil rates.

Oil subsidy account for a quarter of Rs 2.51 lakh crore.

Originally, petrol and diesel prices were deregulated in April 2002 when the NDA government was in power. Administered pricing regime, however, made a back-door entry towards the end of NDA regime in the first quarter of 2004 when crude prices started inching up.

The Congress-led UPA controlled rates as international oil prices went through the roof. In June 2010, however, it freed petrol price from its control and rates have since then moved more or less in tandem with cost.

It had in-principle decided to deregulate diesel, which is used in everything from cars and trucks to back-up power generators and agricultural water pumps. The fuel accounts for 43 per cent of the nation's fuel consumption.

In January 2013, the then UPA government decided to deregulate diesel prices in stages through a monthly 50 paise a litre increase. Rates were last hike on September 1 after which losses have been wiped off.

It is estimated that under-recovery or revenue loss on selling diesel, LPG and kerosene at prices lower than imported cost this fiscal will be around Rs 86,080 crore.

This will have to be met by cash subsidy from government as well as dole from upstream oil producers like ONGC.

The under-recovery estimate for the current fiscal is lower than Rs 1,39,869 crore of last fiscal. In 2013-14, the government had provided Rs 70,772 crore by way of cash subsidy while upstream firms picked up Rs 67,021 crore tab.

Sources said the under-recovery in (April-June) was Rs 28,691 crore. This was mostly met by Rs 11,000 crore cash subsidy from the government and Rs 15,547 crore coming from ONGC, Oil India Ltd and GAIL. The remaining Rs 2,144 crore was absorbed by fuel retailers (IOC, BPCL and HPCL).

In second quarter, the under-recovery is estimated at Rs 21,198 crore with diesel accounting for Rs 2,848 crore as compared to Rs 9,037 crore in the June quarter. Kerosene under-recovery was Rs 6,950 crore (Rs 7,524 crore in Q1) and LPG was Rs 11,400 crore (Rs 12,129 crore in Q1).

While diesel losses have been wiped off, oil firms lose Rs 31.22 a litre on kerosene and Rs 404.64 per 14.2-kg LPG cylinder.

Sources said government had provided Rs 1,00,000 crore cash subsidy in 2012-13 when under-recoveries touched an all- time high of Rs 1,61,029 crore. In the preceding year, Rs 83,500 crore was given. Upstream firms had chipped in with Rs 60,000 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 55,000 crore in 2011-12.

Comments

Floy
 - 
Tuesday, 22 Mar 2016

Hi there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it's
truly informative. I'm gonna watch out for brussels.
I'll be grateful iif you continue this in future. Many people will be
benefited from your writing. Cheers!

my web page - self storage hiram ga: http://www.brownbook.net/business/39277916/harry-chesney-llc

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
April 27,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 27: Over 1.5 lakh Non-Resident Keralites (NRK)s, stranded in various countries, have registered online for returningto the state, once the Centre gives the nod and air services resume

The Norka (Non Resident Keralites Affairs) department had commenced the registration process at around 6pm on Sunday and within an hour 25,000 had registered, government sources said.

Till Monday morning, over 1.5 lakh NRKs have registered, the maximum is from UAE-- over 60,000.

The aged, pregnant women, children, critically ill patients, those with expired visas and those who had gone abroad on visiting visa are among thelarge numbers of people who are waiting to return.

Those wanting to return, have to get themselves tested for COVID-19 in the respective countries, where they are and register after getting a negative certificate for the infection.

Theregistration is for arranging quarantine facilitiesin the state, if necessary, and not for getting any priority on flight bookings,the sources said.

After the NRKs register themselves, the government would draw up a list on how to bring them back as per priority.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 6,2020

New Delhi, May 6: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,694 and the number of cases climbed to 49,391 in the country on Wednesday, registering an increase of 126 deaths and 2,958 cases in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said.

The number of active COVID-19 cases is 33,514. A total of 13,160 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 28.71 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.

The total number of cases include 111 foreign nationals.

A total of 111 deaths were reported since Tuesday evening, of which 49 fatalities were reported from Gujarat, 34 from Maharashtra, 12 from Rajasthan, seven from West Bengal, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Punjab and Tamil Nadu and one each from Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, the ministry said.

Of the 1,694 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 617 fatalities. Gujarat comes second with 368 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 176, West Bengal at 140, Rajasthan at 89, Delhi at 64, Uttar Pradesh at 56 and Andhra Pradesh at 36.

The death toll reached 33 in Tamil Nadu, 29 in Telengana, while Karnataka has reported 29 fatalities.

Punjab has registered 25 COVID-19 deaths, Jammu and Kashmir eight, Haryana six and Kerala and Bihar four deaths each.

Jharkhand has recorded three COVID-19 fatalities.

Meghalaya, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and Uttarakhand have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data.

According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 15, 525, followed by Gujarat at 6,245, Delhi at 5,104, Tamil Nadu at 4,058, Rajasthan at 3,158, Madhya Pradesh at 3,049 and Uttar Pradesh at 2,880.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,717 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,451 in Punjab.

It has risen to 1,344 in West Bengal, 1,096 in Telengana, 741 in Jammu and Kashmir, 671 in Karnataka, 548 in Haryana and 536 in Bihar.

Kerala has reported 502 coronavirus cases so far, while Odisha has 175 cases. A total of 125 people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 111 in Chandigarh.

Uttarakhand has reported 61 cases, Chhattisgarh 59 cases, Assam 43, Himachal Pradesh 42 and Ladakh 41.

Thirty-three COVID-19 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Tripura has registered 43 cases, Meghalaya has reported 12 and Puducherry nine, while Goa has seven COVID-19 cases.

Manipur has two cases. Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Dadar and Nagar Haveli have reported a case each.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website.

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
August 6,2020

Mumbai, Aug 6: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday that overly focusing on what sovereign rating agencies think can take one's eyes off what needs to be done for the economy.

"It is also important to convince both domestic and international investors that after the crisis associated with the pandemic is over, we will return to fiscal responsibility over the medium term, and the government should do more to convince them of that," Rajan told the Global Markets Forum.

India was placed under one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in late March for more than two months to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but cases have continued to rise steadily since the government eased restrictions in June, stymieing hopes of an economic recovery.

The government has announced several initiatives to help the poor and small- and medium-size businesses, but actual cash outgo from the government's measures has been estimated at just about 1% of GDP.

Several attribute the fiscal prudence to fear of a downgrade after Moody's cut India's rating and outlook in early June followed closely by a change in outlook from Fitch.

The central bank on its part too has reduced the key lending rate by 115 basis points on top of the 135 bps last year and is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 bps later on Thursday.

"The RBI and government have certainly been cooperating, but it seems like it is elsewhere, the ball is in the government's court to do more," Rajan said.

He said the RBI needs to focus on whether credit is reaching the stressed areas of the economy and also if the viable firms were able to access credit and not the unviable ones.

"And I think that's where it has to focus its attentions, because resources, as you well know, are limited in India today."

Recently analysts, however, have cited the growing possibility the RBI may prefer to pause and cut rates only at its October meeting.

Government officials too have suggested the possibility of any more fiscal stimulus being announced, would only come in the second half of the fiscal year, once a recovery has taken root and coronavirus cases have peaked.

"What India should focus on at this point is protecting its economic capabilities, so that when it has dealt with the virus it can go resume activity in a reasonable way. That should be the focus," Rajan said.

"And if it does that, there is no reason why the rating agencies will not see that as an appropriate policy".

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.