Fuel hike prudent, should have come sooner: Chief statistician
06 July 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi: New Chief Statistician T C A Anant on Monday said hiking fuel prices was a better option than keeping them artificially low and widening the fiscal deficit, even as the Opposition organised a nationwide strike against the government’s decision on Monday. “On the balance, it would be better to make fuel prices rise than to let Budget deficits grow,” Anant, who recently took over as Secretary of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, told the news agency in an interview. Anant also hinted that the government’s move to hike fuel prices should have come sooner, but acknowledged that it was difficult to time these kinds of decisions because of “multiple pressures” in a democracy. “It is very difficult to time these kinds of things, trying to time these things right is next to impossible, particularly in a democracy where you have multiple pressures at any given point of time. It is a right policy and it should have been taken earlier,” he said. Explaining his reasoning for supporting the hike, he said if an open-ended fuel subsidy is maintained, huge budget deficits would occur when global petroleum prices rise. “This, too, contributes to generalised inflation,” Anant said. When asked whether diesel prices should also be deregulated like petrol, he said it is not a question of whether you should give a diesel subsidy or not, the relevant point is whether it should be given in a manner that it has an unbounded effect on the budget deficit. “Then what you are doing is you are converting uncertainty in a single commodity’s price into a generalised uncertainty over your entire price level,” he explained. Anant said an economy cannot have a strict regulated regime for fuel prices, as it will widen the Budget deficit.
06 July 2010;hindustantimes.com:New Delhi: The Bharat bandh against price rise called separately by the BJP and the CPM and their regional allies gave Delhi a bad Monday morning. It cost the city Rs 600 crore, according to an estimate by the Confederation of All India Traders. The government also lost Rs 65 crore. Political activists, mostly of the BJP, blocked major traffic intersections in the Capital, forced markets and commercial centres to close down and vandalised public property. Over 4,300 activists including BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, D Raja of the CPI and NDA Convenor Sharad Yadav, were detained. Traffic was blocked in large parts of the city. Shops downed shutters at Connaught Place, Chandni Chowk and elsewhere. Even the Metro was not spared. Protesters stopped trains from running at Rajiv Chowk and Patel Nagar Metro stations. "Activists were blocking the road at various locations and deflating tyres of vehicles whose drivers tried to resist them,” said Shankar Rathi (35), a resident of Mayur Vihar. Police said tyres of around 25 DTC buses were deflated. With both roads and Metro services hit, office-goers had a harrowing time. “I decided to take the Metro so I could reach office in time. But it didn’t help,” said Radhika Singh (28), an MBA executive. Police claimed nearly 77,000 officers were deployed on the roads to maintain law and order. “We ensured inconvenience to citizens was minimised,” said Rajan Bhagat, ACP, spokesperson, Delhi Police. As flight operations in Kolkata and Mumbai were severely affected and flights to and from these metro cities to Delhi also suffered. More than 40 flights of private airlines to and from these cities were cancelled.
06 July 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: A look at the street prices in neighbouring countries shows petrol and diesel sold in India — which is of superior quality — almost at par, while kerosene and cooking gas rates turn out to be the cheapest in South Asia. After equalizing various currencies at their dollar exchange rate prevailing on June 4, in terms of Indian rupee the cost of a litre of petrol in Kathmandu was Rs 51.36 a litre on June 1 against Rs 51.43 in Delhi after the June 25 price revision. In comparison, the fuel sold for Rs 49.72 a litre in Dhaka and Rs 47.24 in Colombo but turned out cheaper in Karachi at Rs 36.41. While each litre of superior Euro-IV diesel costs Rs 40.10 in Delhi, the main transportation fuel sells for Rs 41.44 in Karachi, Rs 39.24 in Kathmandu, Rs 29.90 in Colombo and Rs 29.43 in Dhaka. Industry analysts attributed the price differential to the difference in quality, with the Indian market moving to cleaner Euro-III and IV supplies. The difference in tax structures too contribute to the marginal difference in prices. But prices in India shine when it comes to cooking gas and kerosene. Against the price of Rs 345.35 for a cylinder in Delhi, households pay Rs 577.18 in Karachi, Rs 782.84 in Kathmandu, Rs 822.65 in Colombo and Rs 537.37 in Dhaka. After the hike, a litre of kerosene costs Rs 12.32 in Delhi, but will cost Rs 39.24 in Kathmandu, Rs 35.97 in Karachi, Rs 29.43 in Dhaka and Rs 21 in Colombo.
05 July 2010;hindustantimes.com:Lucknow: BJP leaders Arun Jaitley, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Lalji Tandon were among a number of activists arrested today while they were taking out a procession in support of the nation-wide bandh called by the party to protest fuel price hike. Police baton-charged protestors when they tried to march towards main Hazratganj crossing this morning. "A number of party workers and leaders were injured in the lathicharge," BJP leaders claimed. In a bid to prevent BJP workers from marching towards the main market and Vidhan Bhawan, the entire area was barricaded and cordoned off by the police. However, the party workers led by Naqvi and Jaitley crossed the barricade and attempted to march towards main Hazratganj crossing. BJP workers also entered into a scuffle with the police and staged a dharna after being prevented from marching ahead. In a bid to disperse them, police first cane-charged the BJP workers and later arrested them.The senior leaders and workers have been taken to police lines. Tight security arrangements have been made across Uttar Pradesh in view of the bandh called by the opposition parties. Three hundred PAC personnel have been deployed in various districts of the state to maintain law and order during the bandh and to avoid any untoward incident, a senior officer said here. In Lucknow, around 30 people associated with various political parties, including SP, have been taken into preventive custody.
State-owned oil marketing companies may revise auto fuel prices every fortnight
05 July 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:Rajeev Jayaswal:NEW DELHI: State-owned oil marketing companies may revise auto fuel prices every fortnight so that domestic retail prices also reflect the frequent drop in international prices. “Policymakers are in favour of frequent price revisions. To start with, a fortnightly revision instead of a monthly price revision is proposed by some experts,” said an official involved in chalking out modalities for determination of auto fuel prices in a decontrolled regime. Key government officials say that global crude prices are volatile. They rise and fall frequently and a monthly average may not capture the downward trend. “Ideally, deregulation should allow oil companies to revise retail prices on a daily basis to reflect global market realities. But a fortnightly review is recommended,” the official said. Fuel prices change by the hour in the US and even vary from pump to pump, he said. The petroleum ministry and state-owned oil companies are working on the periodicity and other modalities of the fuel price review. “An announcement in this regard is expected soon,” an oil ministry official said. He said private oil companies such as Reliance, Essar and Shell are anyway free to change pump prices of auto fuels on a daily basis like in the US. “A one-month revision period would be quite long for oil PSUs to respond to the competition by private retailers, hence a fortnightly review is more practical to start with,” he added. State-owned oil firms such as IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp are expected to face a fierce competition for market share from their private counterparts post price deregulation. Market forces will act as a regulator and keep retail price of fuel low,” a senior executive of IOC said. State-owned oil firms manage over 95% of the 40,000 odd fuel pumps in India. Oil experts in state-owned PSUs support a fortnightly review. “It is in tandem with calculating the country’s average bill for crude oil imports (popularly known as the Indian basket). Besides, the same frequency is used for aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price revisions,” the IOC official said. But some oil sector experts want the frequency of price revision to be once a month. “In India, transporters will increase freight rates immediately when fuel prices rise. But they will not reduce prices when diesel gets cheaper,” a senior executive working in a private sector oil firm said. Last month, the government announced its decision to free pump prices of petrol. While petrol prices were freed the same day, diesel was to be deregulated in stages. In April 2002, the BJP-led NDA government had deregulated auto fuel prices by dismantling the administered pricing mechanism (APM). PSUs were given freedom to revise retail prices within a band. Beyond the band, any price increase was modulated through changes in duty rates. But just before the general elections in 2004, the NDA government had scrapped this limited freedom of oil companies.
04 July 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi: Opposition NDA and Left parties on Sunday geared up to enforce a 'Bharat Bandh' tomorrow in protest against the fuel price hike but the Government firmly ruled out any roll-back and slammed as unjustified the call for the nation-wide strike. Authorities prepared to take all security measures to ensure there was no untoward incident during the strike, as the Opposition parties tried to make common cause in cornering the government as a build-up to a showdown during the coming monsoon session of Parliament. Normal life is likely to be affected though Emergency services will not be disrupted. Essential services like milk, water, hospitals are exempt from participation in the bandh. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee ruled out a roll-back in the hike in prices of petroleum products and LPG even as his colleague and Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said bandh is "not a solution" and that it was unjustfied. "No question of roll-back," Mukherjee told reporters in Kolkata. In New Delhi, top leaders of BJP-led NDA chalked out the strategy to enforce the bandh against fuel hike and the government's "failure" to control price rise. "This may be the first time in history of India's politics that almost all political parties will participate in the Bharat Bandh," NDA Working Chairperson L K Advani said after a meeting of the leaders. He gave credit to NDA Convenor and JD(U) President Sharad Yadav for bringing together even the non-NDA political parties for the one-day strike. The Left parties have also given a separate call for a 'Bharat Bandh' tomorrow, Most of the opposition parties minus RJD, BSP, LJP and RLD are participating in the bandh. The participating parties are BJP, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, JD-U, CPI-M, CPI, Forward Block, RSP, AIADMK, PMK, MDMK TDP, BJD, JD(S), AGP, Akali Dal and INLD. In an attempt to make the strike a success, BJP decided to send its senior leaders out to various state capitals to lead demonstrations and protest marches. Party president Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh will lead the protest in New Delhi. Yadav, who is also the working convenor of the NDA, also claimed that the agitation would be "extraordinary and unprecedented" as the people were "completely fed-up" with price rise. The Petroleum Ministry released advertisments in newspapers to send a message that the "Bharat Bandh" is not a solution. "Even after the price increase, the Government will bear a financial burden of approximately Rs 53,000 crore during 2010-11," it said. Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjeev Dayal said all security measures have been taken to ensure no untoward incident takes place. "Anyone who takes law into their hands and attempts to paralyse the city shall be dealt with strictly," warned Dayal. As the suburban trains are likely to be targeted by protestors supporting bandh, adequate number of Railway policemen would be deployed at stations for smooth functioning of service, police said. In the Capital, people could face some hardships inreaching their destinations tomorrow as the workers of opposition parties, including the Left and BJP plan to block traffic in several parts of the city. The Left parties said the 'Bharat Bandh' should serve as a warning to the government not to heap burden on the people like decontrolling petrol price. In a statement, CPI(M) Polit Bureau appealed to all sections of the people to join the hartal and make it a big success. "This powerful all India protest action should serve as a warning to the government not to heap burdens on the people and to withdraw the price hike measures," it said. In a joint appeal, the four Left parties said they along with other secular democratic parties and opposition have called for the country-wide hartal to fight against the menace of price rise and government's "inaction" to tackle the issue.
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