Petrol Prices May Be Hiked; Oil Minister Rules Out Any Future Reduction (22-Feb-2012)
Any reduction in petrol prices has been ruled out by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister S Jaipal Reddy. The minister stated that it is not possible to reduce prices especially when oil marketing companies are suffering huge losses due to fluctuations in the prices of crude in the international market. The losses are estimated to be around Rs 1.50 lakh crore.
Reddy said, there is constant pressure from the public and political parties to not to hike diesel, kerosene and LPG prices, but that isn't feasible given the crisis in Iran and Arab countries, the economic slowdown in European countries and the hiked dollar exchange rate, making global crude oil expensive. Hence, there is no option other than increasing the prices on par with those in the international markets.
Admitting that the hike in fuel prices will have to be eventually borne by the common man, the minister said that elections cannot be used as an excuse by politicians to keep the costs subsidized. Reddy stated that if elections were the criteria to not raise prices, then fuel prices could never be hiked as India being the world's biggest democratic country, is faced with elections every year.
Petrol prices in India were liberalized a year ago and have climbed as international oil prices have risen. The government still subsidizes retail prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas.
Top News Today
 National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) will be signing the fuel supply agreements' (FSA) with Coal India for 4,300 megawatts on 2009 terms. In these FSAs companies have change trigger level, which has
 After cellular market leader Bharti Airtel launched its 4G services, now Reliance Industries is reportedly gearing up to launch the services soon and has accordingly partnered with Himachal Futuristic
 Wipro's IT, consulting and outsourcing business Wipro Technologies is likely to introduce India Gateway internship programme for UK university students in July 2012. This internship program consists of
|
International Stock News
 US markets got a good bounce back on Monday with all major indices gaining more than 1%, it was one of the best session of the month. There was some M&A activity along with report that Chinese government
 US markets declined further on Friday, making it the worst week for the markets in 2012, as the most awaited Facebook (FB) IPO was only able to muster a slight gain in its public debut, while the eurozone
 Thursday proved another bad day for the US markets with major indices losing over one to two percent as eurozone debt contagion worries continued, coupled with disappointing economy news. A read on manufacturing
|
|
|