24 March 2010;hindustantimes.com:New Delhi: Cleaner -- but costlier -- Euro-IV standard petrol and diesel will be available from April 1 in 13 cities across the country, Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan said in New Delhi on Wednesday. At a function to mark the launch of the cleaner fuel, he said: "From April 1, Euro-IV standard fuel will be available in 13 cities in India". These cities will include Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Sundareshan noted that the oil firms had made an investment of over Rs 40,000 crore to upgrade their refineries to produce the cleaner grade of petrol and diesel. This was likely to be on passed to the consumer, he indicated. The secretary said the Euro-IV petrol will cost 46 paise per litre more than Euro-III, while Euro-IV diesel will be 26 paise costlier. Sundareshan added that oil firms were already facing a loss of Rs 70,000 crore this year as auto fuels and cooking gas were sold at highly subsidised rates.
24 March 2010;business-standard.com:Kolkata: With the domestic small car market heating up, Korea’s Hyundai Motors is lining up a new release for India. The vehicle, to be launched in the second half of 2011, is likely to be priced not much higher than that of Maruti’s cheapest variant, the Maruti 800. Expected to house a 800cc engine, research and development of the car is being undertaken in Korea. “We are primarily looking at a petrol variant, with a price tag in the range of Rs 2 lakh,” a company official said. The Maruti 800 MPI BS-III, with air conditioning, is priced at Rs 216,475 (ex-showroom Kolkata), while the Hyundai Santro, the Korean auto major’s cheapest domestic vehicle, costs Rs 271,331 (ex-showroom Kolkata). However, with the Hyundai i10 taking over from the Santro as the highest selling vehicle within its stable, the new small car is possibly aimed at reclaiming the mass market segment that is slated to grow robustly. Apart from Hyundai, Nissan is also working on developing a small car in collaboration with Ashok Leyland to target the mass market. Moreover, Renault, which also has a partnership with Nissan, is combining with Bajaj to build an ultra low-cost vehicle for India. The recently launched Ford Figo, which marks the American car maker’s foray into the Indian small car segment, has an entry-level variant priced at Rs 3.66 lakh.
24 March 2010;business-standard.com:New Delhi: Cairn India today announced an increase in the estimates of potential crude oil peak output from its Rajasthan oilfields by 37 per cent, to 240,000 barrels per day. The company has planned to invest $2 billion (Rs 9,100 crore) in calender years 2010 and 2011 in exploration, pipeline expansion and processing facilities. “We have drilled over 50 wells in the Mangala oilfield, leading to a significant improvement in our understanding of the potential reserves. We now believe there is recovery potential of 6.5 billion barrels of crude oil against the earlier estimate of four billion barrels,” Rahul Dhir, chief executive officer and managing director, said here. At the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company’s share price rose by 3.8 per cent, to close at Rs 292.80. During 2009-10, the projected crude oil production in the country is 36.7 million tonnes (mt), 11 per cent higher than the actual production of 33.5 mt in 2008-09. This is mainly due to output from Cairn’s Barmer fields. With the revision of reserve estimates, Cairn fields at their peak would produce 12 mt in a year, pushing domestic output up by 34 per cent, to over 45 mt. A 600-km pipeline from the Mangala processing terminal to Salaya (Gujarat) is likely to be commissioned by June 2010. Cairn India would further expand the pipeline to Bhogat in coastal Gujarat. Of the total potential resources now estimated at 6.5 billion barrels, that from the Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwarya fields, and others in the vicinity, are estimated at four billion barrels; it was earlier put at 3.7 billion. Evaluation of 22 other fields it has is on, the company said.
24 March 2010;business-standard.com:New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki India today said it would be investing Rs 1,250 crore to double capacity at its K-series petrol engine unit in Gurgaon to 500,000 by 2012. The K-series engine currently powers the Swift, A-Star, Ritz, Estilo and SX4 and the plan is to extend it to all the company’s petrol models except the Maruti 800. Petrol engine cars account for nearly 60 per cent of the company’s sales. With this, Maruti’s investments would have crossed Rs 12,000 crore over the past three years. The money has been spent on a new car plant and diesel and petrol engine plants in Manesar, an upgrade of the Gurgaon plant, new model development and an R&D centre in Rohtak. The company’s diesel engine plant has a capacity of 200,000 units. Osamu Suzuki, chairman and CEO, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Maruti’s 54 per cent shareholder, said the company will invest ¥50 billion (Rs 2,500 crore) in R&D investment and K-series capacity expansion. Half this money will be spent on the engine plant. Suzuki, who was in Delhi to attend the roll-out of the millionth car this financial year and lay the foundation stone for the second car plant, said the company would find it difficult to double production from one million to two million. “At present, all world-class manufacturers are entering India and we are facing severe competition here. Today we achieved the one million-unit mark but to achieve two million production in a year will be a tough journey,” he said. Maruti currently accounts for about half the car market’s annual domestic sales of around 1.7 million units. The country’s largest car maker currently has an installed capacity of one million units between the two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar, both in Haryana, and it had announced plans last year to expand capacity by 0.25 million by 2012 (in Manesar) with an investment of Rs 1,700 crore.
23 March 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi:At a time when the citizens are already facing the brunt of price rise, the Delhi Government on Monday dropped another bombshell in the households of the Capital by withdrawing subsidy on cooking gas and increasing the VAT rate on petroleum products (diesel and CNG), mobile phones and its accessories, aerated drinks, writing instruments, watches, coffee beans, desi ghee, dry fruits, kesar, utensils and cutlery items, all of which would be costlier from April 1. Presenting the Budget amid vociferous protests by the Opposition BJP, Finance Minister Ashok Walia on Monday announced the withdrawal of Rs 40 subsidy on cooking gas cylinder for domestic consumers besides an increase in VAT on diesel and CNG. The cost of cooking gas cylinder will be increased from Rs 281 to Rs 322.80 per cylinder. With increase in VAT from 12.5 per cent to 20 per cent, diesel will be costlier by Rs 2.37 per litre. The price of diesel would now be Rs 37.84 per litre in the Capital. The CNG will cost Rs 22.79 per kg with the hike of Rs 1.09 per kg. A five per cent tax has been imposed on the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), the fuel used for public transport like buses and auto-rickshaws. At present, there is no VAT on CNG. The VAT rate on aerated drinks has also been enhanced from 12.5 per cent to 20 per cent. Defending the hike in VAT rate and withdrawal of subsidy on cooking gas cylinder, Walia said the resources of the Delhi Government have been exhausted. “In view of increased expenditure due to Commonwealth Games-related projects and schemes and inadequate collection of taxes due to downturn in the economy has put tremendous pressure on the Government to hike VAT and withdraw subsidy,” he said. The Minister said the withdrawal of subsidy on cooking gas cylinder would help to save Rs 169 crore and generate Rs 350 crore from diesel and Rs 108 crore from CNG. According to Walia, all the States have already withdrawn subsidy on LPG. Presenting a Rs 26,000 crore Budget (Rs 11,200 crore on Plan and Rs 14,660 crore on non-Plan), Walia said the highest allocation went to transport sector which has been given Rs 4,224 crore as against last Budget’s allocation of Rs 3,069 crore. The Budget allocation for water and sanitation is of Rs 1,500 crore while Rs 1,417 crore is earmarked for urban development. Rs 1,243 crore is for health, Rs 1,122 crore for education and Rs 807 crore for social sector. The Budget also proposes increase in VAT on various items like desi ghee, house-hold plastic items, kerosene stoves, wood, inverters, tea, coffee locks, lanterns, fertilisers and all utensils and cutlery items, including pressure cooker, from 5 per cent to 12.5 per cent. The VAT rate on atta, maida, suji, amla, harad, bahera, shikakai, supari, ratanjot, hawan samagri, incense sticks, midday meal and schoolbags would remain same. The Budget also proposes raising of maximum registration fee on documents in registrar’s office to Rs 500 and registration fees in other slabs to be enhanced proportionately. The Budget also proposes increase in the subsidy given to students for uniforms from the next academic session. “Now Rs 500 per annum will be given to girl students of MCD primary schools on a par with students of Government schools. Similarly, Rs 700 will be given to students of Class VI-XII of the Delhi Government and Government aided schools,” he said. About 26 lakh students will benefit from this move, he said. Walia also proposed to enhance scholarship by Rs 50 to promote enrolment in schools.
23 March 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Delhi just became a more expensive city to live in and you can thank the Commonwealth Games for it. The NCT government's finance minister A K Walia on Monday unveiled a budget that hiked taxes on a host of items from diesel to mobile phones, watches to furniture and withdrew the subsidy on cooking gas. His justification for doing so was that expenditure on Games projects had exceeded estimates while the "recession" had meant that revenues didn't keep pace. If last year, with general elections round the corner, Walia had presented what chief minister Shiela Dikshit dubbed a "thanksgiving budget", this time round the message to the aam admi, already reeling under the weight of high inflation, particularly in food items, is clear -- it's payback time. The hike that is likely to hurt most is the increase in the value-added tax (VAT) on diesel from 12.5% to 20%, coming on top of the hikes Pranab Mukherjee had imposed in the Union budget less than a month ago. Higher VAT would mean diesel will cost Rs 2.37 more per litre. Given the widespread use of diesel in transporting goods, it is likely to lead to a cascading effect across the board, partly due to its actual impact on transport costs and partly because it also provides traders with a ready excuse for raising prices. Higher cooking gas prices would also hit home, quite literally. The Rs 40 per cylinder subsidy on LPG which has been continuing from June 2008 has been withdrawn. In absolute terms, the hike in the cost of an LPG cylinder will come to Rs 41.60 because of the incremental increase in local levies. Diesel is just one in a long list of items on which VAT has been hiked. These include tea, coffee, cutlery, school bags costing more Rs 300, compressed natural gas for transport, wood and timber, dry fruits and desi ghee, all of which are set to get more expensive. The LPG subsidy issue and the hike in VAT rates of tea and coffee reportedly caused some division in the cabinet with some ministers demanding an increase in excise rates on liquor rather than targetting the middle class kitchen. The budget also clearly shows how the unruly scenes in the Assembly at the start of the session over price rise and some theatrics from opposition MLAs to highlight the issue have failed to make any impact on the government's psyche -- far less foolhardy than it might seem, given the fact that there are no immediate elections in sight. The items which have escaped the almost across-the-board hike in VAT are foodgrains, atta, maida, suji, unbranded goli and toffee, kirana items except dry fruits etc, amla, harad, jute and jute products, blood filters, tricycles meant for disabled persons, piped natural gas and mid-day meal supplied by agencies approved by the Delhi government. Walia defended both the subsidy withdrawal and the diesel VAT hike by citing examples of other states: "States like Madhya Pradesh and Punjab charge a far higher VAT on diesel than we do and we made the best efforts to keep the hike at the minimum possible, which is why we did not touch the VAT on petrol. As for the subsidy, name one state that continued it for so long after the original hike that had necessitated it was withdrawn. We were concerned so we footed the bill, but now we need this money for other welfare projects like widow pension etc."
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