Decision on diesel, LPG price hike soon

[email protected] (The Hindu)
January 12, 2013

Lpg_DNew Delhi, Jan 12: Even as the Congress core group headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi got down to debate the fuel price hike, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily on Friday said the decision on hiking diesel and LPG prices would be taken “as quickly as possible”.

A decision on increasing the supply of subsidised cylinders from six to nine per household a year would also be taken soon, he told journalists.

The urgency to raise prices comes in wake of the fuel subsidy burgeoning to nearly Rs. 1,60,000 crore during 2012-13.

Asked about the proposals sent by his Ministry to the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Mr. Moily said: “When the decision is taken, you will be the first to know. The Kelkar Committee recommendations are under serious consideration.” The Ministry’s proposals are reportedly based on recommendations of the Vijay Kelkar Committee, which was appointed by the Finance Ministry to suggest a road map for fiscal consolidation.

The Kelkar panel had recommended an immediate hike in the price of diesel by Rs. 4 a litre, kerosene by Rs. 2 a litre and LPG by Rs. 50 per cylinder. Thereafter, it suggested raising the rates in a phased manner over the next two to five years or till the time the subsidy component on diesel, LPG and kerosene is wiped out.

The Petroleum Ministry’s fast tracking of fuel price hike comes in the wake of the Finance Ministry’s refusal to bear the additional subsidy arising out of the proposed increase in subsidised cylinders from six to nine a year.

To compensate for this, the Petroleum Ministry has proposed a hike of Rs. 100 per LPG cylinder in two instalments to partially make up for the Rs. 490.50 per bottle loss being incurred currently. The Ministry has, in its proposals, recommended a quarterly hike of Rs. 50 per cylinder from April till the entire losses are wiped out.

On diesel, it has proposed a Rs. 3-4.50 per litre hike at one go monthly instalments of Re. 1 or Rs. 1.50 per litre. From April, it wanted Re. 1 a litre increase every month till such time the current loss of Rs. 9 is wiped out. It has also proposed raising kerosene price by 35 paise a litre per month or one rupee a litre per quarter till March 2015.

The price of diesel was revised on September 14 and it currently costs Rs. 47.15 per litre in Delhi.

Kerosene rate has not changed since June 2011 and it currently is Rs. 14.79 per litre in Delhi.

Subsidised LPG costs Rs. 410.50 per 14.2-kg cylinder and any household requirement beyond the current cap of 6 cylinders is to be bought at the near-market price of Rs. 895.50 per bottle.

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News Network
May 29,2020

Bengaluru, May 29: Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda mourned the demise of Rajya Sabha member and Managing Director of leading Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi M P Veerendra Kumar, hailing him as a great journalist and writer.

"My deepest condolences on the demise of former union Minister and Rajya sabha member Shri M.P. Veerendra Kumar. He was a great journalist and writer. May god give strength to his family & his people to bear the loss," Gowda said in his condolence message.

Veerandra Kumar, who was a member of PTIs Board of Directors, died late Thursday at a private hospital in Kozhikode in Kerala following cardiac arrest.

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News Network
January 13,2020

Jan 13: India lost more than $1.33 billion to internet restrictions in 2019 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government pushed ahead with his party’s Hindu nationalist agenda, raising tensions and sparking nationwide protests.

The worst shutdown has been in Kashmir, where after intermittent closures in the first half of the year, the internet has been cut off since Aug. 5 following the government’s decision to revoke the special autonomous status of the country’s only Muslim-majority state, a study said. The prologued closure was criticized by India’s highest court, which ruled Friday that the “limitless” internet shutdown enforced by the government for the last five months was illegal and asked that it be reviewed.

India imposed more internet restrictions than any other large democracy, according to the Cost of Internet Shutdowns 2019 report released by Top10VPN, a U.K.-based digital privacy and security research group. The South Asian nation recorded the third-highest losses after Iraq and Sudan, which lost $2.31 billion and $1.86 billion respectively to disruptions. Worldwide internet restrictions caused losses worth $8.05 billion, the report said.

The cost of internet blackouts was calculated using indicators from groups including the World Bank, International Telecommunication Union, and the Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Center. It includes social media shutdowns in its calculations.

India’s ministry of information and technology didn’t respond to an email seeking a response to the report’s findings.

‘Conservative Estimates’

Through 2019, India shut access to the internet for over 4,000 hours. The report added shutdowns in India were often narrowly targeted, down to the level of blocking city districts for a few hours to allow security forces to restore order. Many of these incidents were not included in the report.

“These are conservative estimates,” said Simon Migliano, head of research at U.K.-based Top10VPN. “Internet shutdowns are increasing and it shows a damaging trend.”

India’s other major internet disruptions coincided with two moves by the government that affect India’s Muslim minority. The first disruption took place in November in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan after the Supreme Court handed a victory to Hindu groups over Muslim petitioners in a long-simmering dispute over a plot of land.

There were further disruptions in December when protests erupted against the introduction of a religion-based law that allows undocumented migrants of all faiths except Islam from neighbouring countries to seek Indian citizenship. The government enforced shutdowns across Uttar Pradesh and some Northeastern states in order to quell the protests, the report said.

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Agencies
May 25,2020

New Delhi, May 25: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday extended his greetings on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr and wished that the festival will bring peace and happiness to all.

"Extend my warm greetings on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. May this festival bring peace and happiness in everyone's life," Shah tweeted.

Eid-ul-Fitr is being celebrated across the country on Monday.

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