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Tag: fuel prices

  • Congress chief’s Sunday evening assembly with Dhami fuels hypothesis

    By PTI

    DEHRADUN: A gathering between Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and former chief of opposition within the state Assembly Pritam Singh has triggered the hypothesis of the Congress chief switching his allegiance to the ruling BJP within the close to future.

    The assembly that befell on the chief minister’s residence late on Sunday evening assumed significance because it got here shut on the heels of the Congress revamping its state unit wherein Singh, a five-time MLA from Chakrata, was apparently sidelined by the occasion management.

    However, when contacted, Singh dismissed the hypothesis.

    Singh, who has held key positions like that of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president from 2017 to 2021 and the chief of opposition within the Assembly after the demise of Indira Hridayesh final yr, has not been assigned any main organisational accountability within the newest revamp of the occasion’s state unit.

    Karan Mahra, who is alleged to be near former chief minister and Singh’s bete noire Harish Rawat, has been made the PCC chief, senior occasion chief and Bajpur MLA Yashpal Arya has been appointed because the chief of opposition and Bhuwan Chandra Kapri, who defeated Dhami within the recently-held state Assembly polls from Khatima, is the deputy chief of opposition.

    Arya has held the posts of PCC president previously. He can also be a former speaker of the Assembly.

    The Uttarakhand Congress has lengthy been divided into two factions — one led by Rawat and the opposite by Singh.

    As the Congress seems to be for components that will have led to its failure to wrest energy from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttarakhand, factionalism has emerged as a potential cause why its efficiency fell far in need of the expectations.

    Congress’s ballot observers Avinash Pandey and Devender Yadav ready a report lately, attributing the occasion’s ballot debacle in Uttarakhand to variations amongst its state leaders.

    Singh expressed his harm on being accused of factionalism within the report, however refused to say something on his assembly with the chief minister.

  • Delhi Congress holds protest in opposition to central govt over rising gas costs

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi unit of the Congress on Sunday staged a protest in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri space in opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central authorities for fixed rise in gas and gasoline costs.

    The protest, a part of the opposition get together’s “Mahangai Mukt Bharat” marketing campaign, was led by Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Chaudhary Anil Kumar.

    The protesters raised slogans in opposition to the central authorities, holding it chargeable for “sharp” enhance within the costs of oil and pure gasoline.

    Kumar mentioned the Centre has elevated costs of petrol, diesel, CNG, PNG and even the home gasoline cylinder simply after the polls in 5 states had been over.

    “Spike in fuel prices has also led to inflation among other daily commodities. The government should reduce fuel prices to give breather to people,” he mentioned.

    In the protest, agitators mocked the central authorities by garlanding cylinders and bikes.

    Congress supporters, who participated within the protest, mentioned it was turning into robust for widespread individuals to outlive amid “such inflation”.

    “Constant increase in fuel and natural gas prices broke the backbone of the public. Rates of petrol, diesel are being raised everyday having a cascading effect on other commodities as well, which is making daily consumables costlier,” a Congress protester mentioned.

  • Netherlands provides to be India’s ‘gateway’ to gas EU’s inexperienced shift

    With the Russia-Ukraine disaster resulting in rise in oil and gasoline costs, there’s a rethink of power dependency on Russia among the many European nations. The Netherlands is taking a look at decreasing its power dependency with Russia “as soon as possible”, whereas exploring options together with inexperienced hydrogen within the coming occasions.

    “One of the things that is crystal clear now is that we should have done more in the last 10 years as a continent as Europeans, but also as Dutch to make sure we create more energy independence. We have talked about it for 10 years, potentially even longer, and we’ve done too little. Now, this clearly is something that is very much a topic again and we will make sure we get that energy independence as quickly as possible. I talked to the US Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken and Minister (Annalena) Baerbock from Germany and to many other colleagues. We will make sure we see this through and we will make sure we become energy independent of Russia ASAP,” Netherlands’ Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra stated in an interplay with Indian journalists.

    “We cannot organise that tomorrow. For the Netherlands, the burden isn’t that high but for some of our friends in Europe, the burden is quite high. But we will see it through and we will do it as quickly as possible. And we will do it together with the whole European EU family,” he added.

    The conflict in Ukraine has put dialogue round power dependence in a quicker transition mode, stated the Netherlands’ Climate Envoy Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, including there’s potential for the Netherlands and India to discover commerce in inexperienced hydrogen.

    “One of the alternatives is green hydrogen. As it happens, it is one of the goals for India to become a net exporter of green hydrogen, we could become a net importer because the Netherlands doesn’t have enough space to produce all the green hydrogen ourselves. That’s not just for energy intensive industries, but also for transport and household usages. Potentially, gas could be replaced by green hydrogen,” he stated.

    The Netherlands might turn out to be a facilitator for export of inexperienced hydrogen from India to Europe, Jaime stated.

    “The Netherlands is well-positioned to be your gateway to the rest of Europe, with the Port of Rotterdam as Europe’s biggest port, linking to Northern European countries including Germany and Belgium. There’s a potential to explore for our two countries,” he added.

    The Netherlands is at current in dialogue with the business as a result of they’re within the means of inserting orders. “So the question is how do we structure it and what infrastructure do we need? Are you going to ship hydrogen as ammonia or in frozen form? All that needs to be agreed to see which way is the best. Right now, Singapore and Japan are the furthest developed in importing green hydrogen, so we are looking at them also to set the standard and to see what is the standard going forward,” Jaime stated.

    Going forward, investments from the Netherlands — the fifth largest international investor for India — might see a shift in direction of renewables from fossil fuels, he added. As per calculations by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), India wants about $42 billion over the interval until 2030 per 12 months for the annual renewal power investments.

    The Netherlands is working with India on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on renewable power, which is more likely to be taken up for dialogue throughout the upcoming go to of President Ram Nath Kovind subsequent week to the nation.

    “There are several areas of collaboration, such as research, knowledge, building plants and infrastructure such as ports and solar and wind generation. All these areas need to be mapped out and severely reduce emissions if we are to preserve a futureproof planet,” Jaime stated.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whereas talking on the third Re-inVest Conference in November 2020, had introduced plans to launch a complete National Hydrogen Energy Mission. Last week, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari travelled to Parliament in a hydrogen-based gas cell electrical automobile (FCEV), in what could possibly be interpreted as a powerful indication of a shift in stance by the Centre that has to this point backed typical battery-powered electrical automobiles, or BEVs.

    In the Union Budget for 2021-22 final 12 months, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed launching a Hydrogen Energy Mission in 2021-22 for producing hydrogen from inexperienced energy sources.

    Last month, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy introduced a 13-point Green Hydrogen Policy detailing the assorted incentives and methods to fabricate inexperienced hydrogen.

  • Congress leaders stage protest towards rising gas costs

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress MPs led by Rahul Gandhi on Thursday staged a protest towards the gas value hike at Vijay Chowk right here and sought its roll again.

    Congress MPs from each the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha carrying placards raised slogans towards the federal government and sat on a dharna towards the rise in value of petrol, diesel and LPG gasoline.

    Among these current included Leader of Opposition within the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress chief within the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

    In the final 10 days, petrol and diesel value have been elevated 9 occasions. We demand that the rising costs ought to be introduced underneath management. Congress celebration is holding nationwide protests on this challenge at this time: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, in Delhi pic.twitter.com/8AB8NusLC4

    — ANI (@ANI) March 31, 2022

    The Congress can also be launching a week-long countrywide protest towards inflation and rise in gas costs.

    Petrol and diesel costs have been on Thursday hiked by 80 paise a litre every, taking the full enhance in charges within the final 10 days to Rs 6.40 per litre.

    Rates have been elevated throughout the nation and fluctuate from state to state relying upon the incidence of native taxation.

    This is the ninth enhance in costs for the reason that ending of a four-and-half-month lengthy hiatus in price revision on March 22.

  • LS warmth over invoice on full organic document of accused

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Amid din, the federal government on Monday launched a invoice within the Lok Sabha to accord authorized sanction to the police to take bodily and organic samples of any particular person accused of crime. The Opposition vociferously opposed the invoice, calling it unlawful and unconstitutional.

    Agitated Opposition members like Manish Tewari, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, N Okay Premachandran and Saugata Roy pressured a vote on the introductory stage of the Criminal Procedures (Identification) Bill, although it was defeated with 120 ayes for the laws as in opposition to 58 nays.

    Minister of state for dwelling Ajay Mishra sought to allay apprehensions, saying the invoice solely seeks to make provisions for using fashionable strategies to seize applicable physique measurements of all accused for investigation.

    It is supposed to interchange the present Identification of Prisoners Act, which was launched method again in 1920. The current regulation permits taking fingerprints and footprint impressions of a restricted class of convicted individuals. But beneath the brand new invoice, the time period ‘measurements’ contains finger impressions, palm print and footprint impressions, images, iris and retina scan in addition to bodily and organic samples and their evaluation.

    Strongly opposing the invoice, Congress chief Manish Tewari stated it was in opposition to Article 20, Sub-Article 3 and Article 21 of the Constitution, including it was past the legislative competence of the Lok Sabha. “Under Article 20, Sub-Article 3 explicitly states, no person or accused of any crime shall be compelled to be a witness against himself,” Tewari identified, including that phrases like ‘biological samples and their analysis’ within the invoice may result in narco evaluation and mind mapping. 

    Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, Premachandran and others questioned the intention for empowering the police to such an extent by the invoice. But, Ajay Mishra countered that the invoice grants authorized sanction to the police to solely take physique measurements for effectivity in prison investigations. The Law Commission, he identified, had urged modifications to the regulation in 1980, however the suggestions weren’t acted upon for 42 years. On apprehensions raised by Premachandran, Mishra stated the Criminal Procedure Code already allowed assortment of DNA samples.

  • Opposition calls for dialogue on gasoline worth hike, Speaker says solely throughout Zero Hour

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday declined the opposition’s demand for a dialogue on the problem of gasoline worth hike after suspending the Question Hour, saying he would give them “enough time and opportunities” to lift the matter in the course of the Zero Hour.

    As quickly because the House assembled at 11 am after the weekend break, Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Trinamool Congress’ Sudip Bandyopadhyay and DMK’s T R Baalu demanded that the House ought to focus on the gasoline worth hike, which the federal government effected for the sixth time in every week.

    The opposition events, together with the Left, insisted that they need to be allowed to debate the problem and got here to the properly of the House.

    The opposition members shouted slogans towards the Modi authorities demanding withdrawal of the hike in gasoline costs.

    However, the Speaker mentioned the primary hour, which is reserved as Question Hour, ought to be allowed to operate with out interruption and he would permit them to lift the problem in the course of the Zero Hour, which begins at 12 midday.

    “I will give you enough time and opportunities to raise the issue after the Question Hour. Question Hour is very important. So, let the Question Hour continue,” he mentioned.

    As the opposition members pressed for his or her demand, Birla mentioned he listens to all opposition members and all the time provides them sufficient alternatives to lift their points.

    “I will not allow forced adjournment of the House. The Question Hour is vital to raise people’s issues. Please sit down. I will give you the opportunities during Zero Hour. I give opportunities to you all. I always give opportunities to Adhir ji, Sudip ji and Baalu ji,” he mentioned.

    Following the Speaker’s enchantment, the opposition members returned to their seats. Petrol worth on Monday was hiked by 30 paise a litre and diesel by 35 paise, taking the overall improve in charges within the final one week to Rs 4-4.10 per litre.

    Petrol in Delhi will now price Rs 99.41 per litre as towards Rs 99.11 beforehand whereas diesel charges have gone up from Rs 90.42 per litre to Rs 90.77, in response to a worth notification of state gasoline retailers.

    Rates have been elevated throughout the nation and range from state to state relying upon the incidence of native taxation.

    This is the sixth improve in costs because the ending of a four-and-half-month lengthy hiatus in fee revision on March 22.

    In the primary 4 events, costs had been elevated by 80 paise a litre, the steepest single-day rise because the day by day worth revision was launched in June 2017. On Sunday, petrol worth went up by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise.

    In all, petrol costs have gone up by Rs 4 per litre and diesel by Rs 4.10.

    Prices had been on a freeze since November 4 final yr forward of the meeting elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab — a interval throughout which the price of uncooked materials (crude oil) soared by about USD 30 per barrel.

  • Shiv Sena protests in Aurangabad towards gas value rise

    By PTI

    AURANGABAD: Shiv Sena activists in Aurangabad in Maharashtra on Sunday protested towards rising gas costs and shouted slogans towards the BJP-led authorities on the Centre.

    The protest happened at Kranti Chowk right here and was attended by native leaders, together with MLC Ambadas Danve and MLA Sanjay Shirsat.

    “The BJP government came to power speaking about price rise. But under their rule, the cost of a gas cylinder has gone up from Rs 400 in 2014 to Rs 1,050 now. This rise in fuel prices is fanning inflation,” Danve mentioned.

    Shirsat mentioned the Union authorities was operating away from its duty of controlling value rise.

  • Global rally, native rise: Fuel hike looms as OMCs to revise costs

    Consumers are set to face considerably larger petrol and diesel costs beginning subsequent week, as oil advertising and marketing corporations (OMCs) restart every day value revisions, amid hovering crude oil costs as a result of ongoing Russia-Ukraine battle.

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    The value of Brent crude has risen round 30 per cent for the reason that starting of February amid mounting considerations about secure provide of oil and fuel. India imports about 85 per cent of its crude oil necessities. Brent rose to $119.84 a barrel, the best since 2012. By 11:27 am ET, it was 0.1 per cent up at $113.08.

    Despite rocketing crude oil costs and requires improve in oil manufacturing, the OPEC+ group of oil exporting nations has introduced that it will keep a deliberate manufacturing improve of solely 4,00,000 barrels per day in April, retaining manufacturing 8.3 per cent decrease than reference manufacturing ranges. “Our estimate is that at current levels of excise duty an increase of Rs 10-12 per litre (in the price of diesel and petrol) to allow OMCs to get back to some positive marketing margins. The government may reduce excise duty to alleviate the impact of any such increase to a certain extent,” stated Probal Sen, analyst at ICICI Securities. In Delhi, petrol is at the moment retailing at Rs 95.41 per litre whereas diesel is retailing at Rs 86.67 per litre.

    Sen added City Gas Distribution corporations would additionally probably must hike costs in April to move on a $2-3 per mmbtu (Metric Million British Thermal Unit) improve in pure fuel costs.

    State-owned OMCs have saved the costs of petrol and diesel fixed since November 4, when the federal government reduce excise responsibility on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 per litre and Rs 10 per litre, respectively. The value of Brent crude has risen round 44 per cent for the reason that final revision in pump costs. Daily value revisions are more likely to be restarted subsequent week as Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur conclude. OMCs had additionally held gasoline costs fixed for over two months throughout key state elections in 2021, with pump costs rising sharply after the polls. Ordinarily, home costs are revised every day and benchmarked to a 15-day rolling common of worldwide costs of petrol and diesel.

    Experts famous that the OMCs had benefited from larger refining margins since November and that stock good points from the rise in crude oil costs would additionally defend their earnings from the impression of detrimental advertising and marketing margins within the quick run. Gross Refining Margin is the distinction between the worth of crude oil and the worth of petroleum merchandise produced utilizing crude oil in a refinery. Inventory good points are good points from revaluation crude oil inventory held with OMCs according to larger worldwide costs.

    “OMCs will also take into account the higher refining margins they are making. In November, benchmark Singapore GRMs were at $5 per barrel and the February average is $7.3 per barrel,” stated Sen.

    Despite the excise responsibility reduce in November, Central levies on petrol and diesel are nonetheless Rs 8 and Rs 6 per litre larger than pre-pandemic ranges. Icra estimated {that a} full rollback of excise duties to pre-pandemic stage would value the federal government Rs 90,000 crore in revenues within the subsequent fiscal, bearing in mind a Rs 2-hike on excise responsibility on unblended fuels which is able to come into impact in October 2022.

  • ‘Diversified mix of energy sources’ could also be key amid rising gas costs

    In what might sign a coverage push within the upcoming Union Budget for 2022-23, the Economic Survey for 2021-22 has flagged considerations with each clear vitality sources and rising costs of standard gas sources, calling for adoption of an strategy having a “diversified mix of sources of energy of which fossil fuels are an important part”.
    On the coverage entrance, particularly, it has highlighted three factors that shall be pertinent:
    1. The tempo at which shift from standard fossil-fuel primarily based sources is made. This tempo will decide the extent and mixture of funding in renewable sources of vitality, it stated.
    2. It additionally identified the significance of avoiding the danger of being a late comer within the net-zero emission plans on condition that developed international locations are already front-runners. This is pertinent due to the inelastic provide of minerals and metals important for creating clear vitality sources, which is inflicting the costs to shoot up, much more so sooner or later.
    3. Lastly, it referred to as for encouraging of analysis and improvement to make sure easy change to renewable sources of vitality. This can also embrace give attention to creating expertise that recycles, reuses and repurposes minerals, it stated.

    “The recent surge in prices of natural gas in Europe on account of higher energy demand coupled with cold spells across the region and slower winds to run wind turbines has resulted in lower electricity output. The energy crisis being experienced by Europe brings to the fore the need for having a diversified mix of sources of energy of which fossil fuels are an important part. Simultaneously focus should be laid on building storage for intermittent electricity generation from solar PV and wind farms to ensure on-demand energy supply,” the Survey famous.

    ExplainedCan lower time and pink tapeAs vitality crises are being skilled in varied components of the world, largely notably in Europe, the main focus for India wants to show to a balanced strategy of switching to renewable esources and easing out fossil-fuel primarily based ones.

    Notably, the federal government has already began transferring on organising giant battery storage system — one thing that has inspired multi-million greenback offers within the vitality storage expertise, together with grid-scale stationary storage purposes. The Centre has already introduced plans to drift tenders to arrange 13 GWh grid-scale battery storage programs in Ladakh area, along with constructing a 14 GWh grid-scale battery storage system on the world’s largest renewable vitality park at Khavda in Kutch in Gujarat.
    Power Minister RK Singh had not too long ago stated that the federal government will quickly come out with an vitality storage coverage which can delicense the organising of standalone vitality storage programs with a view to broaden using storage programs within the nation to allow easy transition to scrub vitality. Singh has repeatedly referred to as out western international locations for low investments in creating vitality storage expertise to carry down the value of storage.
    Separately, analysts are predicting that crude oil costs to might rise to as excessive as $125 per barrel as a result of geopolitical tensions within the center east and in Europe as Russia has amassed a lot of troops on its border with Ukraine.

    Further, key oil producing international locations have saved crude oil provides on a regularly rising manufacturing schedule regardless of a pointy enhance in international crude oil costs. Earlier this month OPEC determined to extend its total day by day manufacturing ranges by solely 400,000 barrels per day in February regardless of its personal forecast that oil demand would rise by 4.15 million barrels per day in 2022. India has repeatedly referred to as on OPEC to extend manufacturing to satisfy the rise in international demand noting that prime crude oil costs are undermining the publish pandemic financial restoration in rising nations.

  • Centre’s gas tax aid: More states, Union Territories comply with up, lower VAT

    A TOTAL of 18 states and 6 Union Territories have lower taxes on auto gas, following the transfer by the Centre to chop excise responsibility on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 10 per litre, respectively.
    All 17 NDA-led states, together with Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar and Haryana, have lower state taxes on petrol and diesel.
    States and Union Territories that haven’t decreased Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel embody Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Punjab, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.
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    Other states which have lower taxes on petrol and diesel embody  Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, Goa, Assam, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Biju Janata Dal-ruled Odisha.
    According to a launch by the Petroleum Ministry, the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Ladakh, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have additionally lower VAT on petrol and diesel.
    A gradual rise in crude costs and elevated taxes, each Central excise responsibility and state taxes, which have been in impact since May 2020, performed a key function in pushing the value of auto gas over the pre-Covid retail worth ranges this 12 months.
    Between February and May final 12 months, the federal government elevated excise duties on petrol and diesel by Rs 13 per litre and Rs 16 per litre, respectively, amid a pointy decline in revenues as a result of Covid-19 pandemic and associated restrictions.
    A lot of states had additionally hiked state taxes on petrol and diesel to shore up revenues amid falling Goods and Services Tax collections.
    The extra cuts in VAT on petrol and diesel have led to costs falling by as much as Rs 12 per litre on petrol and Rs 17 per litre on diesel in sure states. Gujarat, Manipur and Assam are amongst states which have lower VAT by Rs 7 per litre every on petrol and diesel.
    Certain states together with Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka have introduced {that a} lower in state taxes would carry costs of the auto fuels down by Rs 12 per litre every, together with the influence of the excise responsibility lower by the Centre.
    The authorities had, whereas asserting the lower in excise responsibility charges, referred to as on states to “commensurately reduce VAT on petrol and diesel to give relief to consumers.”
    The Centre had famous that the autumn in gas costs would come as a lift to farmers throughout the upcoming rabi season and in addition assist middle- and lower-income households by curbing inflation and boosting consumption within the financial system.