Diesel vehicles ban worst advertisement of India: Toyota
With the Supreme Court set to take up the matter of ban on diesel cars and SUVs on Monday, the world’s largest automaker Toyota said continued restrictions on vehicles that comply with all regulations would be the “worst advertisement of India”. The ban has been imposed on diesel vehicles with an engine capacity of above 2,000 cc in Delhi and NCR. The company, which operates in India as a joint venture — Toyota Kirloskar Motor — with the Kirloskar group, is among the worst hit and has not been selling its popular vehicles Innova and SUV Fortuner in the Delhi-NCR region since the ban was imposed in December last year. “If we don’t get a breakthrough on Monday, our vehicles despite being compliant of all regulations in India would continue to be banned. That’s the worst advertisement of India,” Toyota Kirloskar Motor Vice-Chairman and Whole-time Director Shekar Viswanathan told PTI. Stating that the environment lobby is not adequately informed, he said, “Does the ban suggest to mean that other diesel, petrol and CNG driven vehicles don’t pollute? Why is the ban only on 2,000 cc and above diesel cars and SUVs?” On the company’s plans in case the ban stays, Viswanathan said, “Then, we will sit out of the market where the ban is imposed. We cannot change the engine specification as our customers may not desire it.” He also cautioned that there would be “losses, laying off of people and hardships for dealerships” in the auto industry if other cities were to seek a similar ban on such diesel vehicles as is being currently done in the capital and NCR. Questioning the rationale of the ban, he said, “While the latest BS-IV compliant cleaner vehicles are banned, old vehicles of pre-BS era, BS I, I and III continue to pollute.” Asked if Toyota is ready for an environment compensation cess on the lines of the Supreme Court asking the Delhi Police to pay 30 per cent of the real value of new vehicles as a pre-condition for their registration, Viswanathan said, “That would be too much of a burden for ordinary customers.” Besides Toyota, other manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover and Mahindra & Mahindra are the major automobile firms hit by the ban. The automobile industry has been against the ban, saying such restrictions will not help achieve the desired objective of reducing pollution and will only vilify diesel technology. Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R C Bhargava had termed the ban as “totally arbitrary”. Derrick Thomas Womens Jersey
Diesel to be cheaper by 54 paise/litre as Delhi government slashes VAT
Diesel will be cheaper by 54 paise a litre from Saturday as the Delhi government late on Friday night reduced VAT to 15.75 per cent from 18.5 per cent. Diesel would now cost Rs 50.41 per litre against Rs 59.94 in Delhi. The new rates are at par with the price in Haryana, especially in respect to Gurgaon and Sonepat – the two cities that drew a lot of refulling business. Delhi has about 400 outlets with a combined daily sale of 1200 kilo-litres. The AAP government had some three months back raised VAT on diesel to 18.5 per cent from 16.5 per cent. This gave advantage to fuel retailers in neighbouring states, prompting a drop in sales at pumps in Delhi, especially those bordering Haryana and UP. However, diesel continues to be cheaper in UP even after the latest reduction in VAT. Chris Chelios Womens Jersey
Domestic crude export not economically justified: Centre to High Court
With nearly 85 per cent of India’s crude oil requirement being met by imports, it would not be “economically justified” to permit export of the country’s domestic crude production, the Centre has told the Delhi High Court. The submission was made by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, while opposing UK-based Vedanta group company Cairn India’s plea for permission to export excess crude from its Barmer oilfield. Defending its decision not to allow Cairn to export the crude, the ministry has said an empowered committee of secretaries has gone into the issue and concluded that India’s energy security would be adversely affected by allowing crude oil exports as then “more expensive” and “lighter crude oil” would have to be imported. “India has a total refining capacity of 223 million tons of crude oil. That in the present scenario only 38 million tons of crude oil from domestic production is available for refining in Indian refineries. “That the balance (84.9 per cent) crude oil is required to be imported to meet the domestic refinery capacity. Hence, allowing export of domestic production of crude oil is not economically justified,” the ASG told Justice Manmohan. The ASG, assisted by central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, also told the court that Cairn has “complete freedom to fix the price of crude oil”, that it sells to any domestic refinery, “on arms length basis” as the company has claimed it was forced to sell its share of crude to private players at prices 20 per cent less than global rates. With regard to Cairn’s earlier claim that selling its share of crude at lesser price has caused a loss of Rs 14 billion to the government, the ministry told the court that “we do not want to earn profit out of our natural resources” and added that crude oil cannot be exported presently as per its policy of zero per cent export till India attains self sufficiency. The court, thereafter, asked the government to place the policy before it by the next date of hearing on May 18. Roger Clemens Authentic Jersey
Cong for probe into Gujarat gas ‘scam’
After flagging it in Parliament repeatedly, the Congress today took the matter related to Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (SGPC) gas exploration to President Pranab Mukherjee demanding a judicial investigation into the “scam”. Basing its demands on a CAG report which revealed recently that the GSPC fruitlessly invested around Rs 197 billion in exploration of gas in Krishna Godavari basin, the Congress said GSPC must be made accountable for loss of public money. The explorations were based on the purported discovery of India’s largest gas reserves, of 20 trillion cubic feet, valuing Rs 2220 billion in 2005 in the basin. An announcement to this effect had been made by the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. He had then promised commercial production from 2007 on an investment of Rs 15 billion. But no gas was found or produced. The Congress leaders led by party president Sonia Gandhi’s political adviser Ahmed Patel and comprising state unit chief Bharat Singh Slinky and Shankarsinh Vaghela argued before President for a judicial probe saying the state cannot be the judge in its own case. Jeremy Hill Authentic Jersey
Low inflation shows oil price benefit passed on: Pradhan
Minister defends fuel taxes as shield against shocks if oil prices climb again Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, citing reasonable levels of inflation over the past two years, has strongly dismissed the perception that the government has failed to pass on the benefits of lower oil prices to Indian consumers “Since the last two years, the ballpark figures for inflation have been under control. How come? If we had not passed on the crude oil price benefit to the consumer, the transportation sector would not have seen so much rationality in prices,” Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mr. Pradhan said. “Today, 50 per cent of the profitability due to the slide in oil prices has been passed on to consumers. The remaining 50 per cent was kept with the Centre. Of that 50 per cent, 42 per cent is transferred to the states as per the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendations,” the Minister said, stressing that the Centre is focused on funding developmental priorities as a welfare state. He also defended the high taxation on fuels like petrol and diesel as a tool to protect people from a price shock when oil prices start to climb up again. “There is no developed country that has transferred the benefit of sliding oil prices to the consumers in any real way,” Mr Pradhan said. “If you make the consumer vulnerable by exposing him to low prices, then he will feel such a pinch when the prices go up,” he said, hinting at the government’s logic to raise taxes on fuels while global prices fell. Central and state-level taxes now account for around 60 per cent of the final price of petrol and 55 per cent of the final price of diesel in the national capital, as per official data. The minister said that the high proportion of taxes on petrol and diesel could be reduced when oil prices rise again. “That is a strategy. Again and again, I have stated in Parliament that if necessary, at one point of time, knowing the volatility of the oil economy, this could be done. Our first step was to bring some benefit to the customer, then to spend on welfare activities, and third, in the event of prices shooting up, do what we can to alleviate this,” he said. “We talk about energy. Is energy only the diesel that is put in sports utility vehicles (SUVs)? It is also the clean fuel that should go into houses,” Mr Pradhan said, stressing that the Centre has been using the fuel tax receipts to finance critical development programs such as affordable housing, cooking gas connections for the poor and so on. “LPG came in the country in 1955,” he added. “From then to May 2014, India had 130 million active LPG connections. In the last 22 months, we have added 35 million new LPG connections and we have brought in the Ujjwala Yojana where, in the next three years, we will add five crore LPG connections in the names of the women in BPL households, with financial support from the government.” In addition, he pointed to the Power Ministry’s rural electrification programme, saying that the target to electrify the 18,000-odd villages that have so far remained without electricity has also meant a higher expenditure. Highlighting the government’s schemes to provide 1.5 crore houses by 2019, Mr Pradhan said that the erstwhile scheme—Indira Awaas Yojana—has been expanded under this government, which has resulted in a higher expenditure. “We made a provision in the Budget and started spending. Where will the money come from?” he said. D.J. Fluker Womens Jersey
Nod for Rs. 4,300 crore worth of highway projects
The Government on Wednesday approved two highway projects worth around Rs.4,300 crore, among a slew of other decisions. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave a nod to the four-laning of the Lucknow-Sultanpur section on National Highway-56 in Uttar Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs.2844.72 crore. The two-laning, with the formation of four lanes, of the Shimla Bypass (Kaithlighat to Shimla section) on National Highway-22 in Himachal Pradesh was the second project which was approved, at a cost of Rs.1583.18 crore. The Cabinet also approved a proposal to create flexibility in the use of domestic coal. The move is expected to reduce the cost of power generation by 40-50 paise per unit, which will lead to savings of Rs 25,000 per year in around 4-5 years. The adoption of the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics was also approved. This adoption is expected to bring “professional independence, impartiality, accountability and transparency in methods of collection, compilation and dissemination of official statistics,” according to the Government. A Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates on cooperation concerning currency swap agreements was approved.The Cabinet approved the proposal to move, in Parliament, the adoption of the recommendations of the Railway Convention Committee (2014) – dividend of five per cent and four per cent for the years 2014-15 and 2015-16respectively on the capital invested in Railways. Joe Kocur Authentic Jersey
Domestic gas users in major cities need income proof for subsidy claim
Consumers in Tier-I and II cities will have to submit affidavits to their LPG distributors stating that their annual income is below Rs.10 lakh to continue to receive cooking gas subsidy, according to Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.“In the Tier-I and Tier-II cities, when somebody comes to refill gas, they are asked to sign an affidavit regarding their income,” the Minister said. “It is a matter of trust. We have to trust our people, and they are trustworthy. I didn’t believe that 1 crore people would give up their subsidy, but they did.” One crore people While over one crore people have given up LPG subsidy over the past year, an extensive government survey in the most affluent areas of metropolitan cities has revealed that only three per cent of its residents had done so.“We did a market survey of one lakh well-to-do localities in the metros, ones where the proportion of people earning Rs.10 lakh or more would be high — South Delhi, South Mumbai, South Bangalore, Salt Lake City in Kolkata, parts of Pune and Chennai,” Mr.Pradhan told The Hindu. “Only 3 per cent of these people had given up their LPG subsidy.” In March this year, the government sought to use Income Tax records to identify high income earners and sent them messages informing them that they are no longer eligible for subsidised cooking gas. But that plan was dropped, the minister indicated. “If the Income Tax Department is not entitled to share the data, then how would I know (what the data says)?” Mr. Pradhan asked. “The law is the law. It is a matter of privacy. The Finance Ministry is bound by the principle of privacy of Income Tax information,” he said. Now, instead of identifying ineligible beneficiaries, the government has cast the net wider by making it incumbent upon users to submit affidavits declaring that their income is less than Rs.10 lakh. Earlier, oil ministry officials had told The Hindu that 3 lakh people earning Rs.10 lakh or more had been identified using Income Tax data. Last month, Mr. Pradhan said those who had voluntarily given up their LPG subsidy could re-apply for it after a year. In Parliament on April 24, he said that the government had decided to “exclude” those earning Rs.10 lakh or more from the purview of the LPG subsidy. Nick Markakis Jersey
DGCA to conduct a fare audit on 20 routes to ascertain seats sold on higher fare bucket
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to conduct a fare audit on 20 routes to ascertain the percentage of seats sold on higher fare bucket by airlines. The regulator will ask the airlines to furnish the amount of revenues earned through these highest bucket seats. “We are trying to ascertain the amount of tickets airlines are selling in the highest fare bucket. Based on the response, we will ale a call,” said a senior DGCA official, who did not want to be identified. There is a lot of complaints on airlines charging high fares. Recently, MPs have also complained about airlines charging higher fares. Bradley Pinion Authentic Jersey
Freight Corridor Corp to award Rs 14,000-cr contracts in FY17
Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC), the Indian Railways’ arm implementing the ambitious freight corridor project, will award contracts worth Rs 14,000 crore in the current financial year (2016-17) in a bid to quickly wrap up work and meet the 2019 deadline for commissioning the Rs 82,000-crore project. “By July 2016, we are going to place orders worth Rs 10,000 crore. The balance – around Rs 4,000 crore worth of contracts – will be placed in the rest of the current financial year itself. After this, work will be progressing in every section of DFCC,” said a senior executive. He added the company has so far placed 76 per cent of the contracts for civil works and 63 per cent of electrical contracts, apart from 48 per cent of the total signalling contracts. For the construction of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, contracts worth Rs 4,000 crore were awarded in 2013 followed by another Rs 5,000 crore contracts in 2014. Last year, the DFCC placed around five contracts for signalling and telecommunication, electrification and civil construction. Similarly, nine contracts were placed for Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. The executive said the government-owned firm placed contracts worth Rs 24,000 crore in 2015-16 for various works on the freight corridor. “This is compared to Rs 13,000 crore worth of contracts placed in previous six years (2009-14),” he said. DFCC’s capex in FY16 stood at Rs 8,600 crore, compared to Rs 2,800 crore in FY15, a three-fold increase. In 2016-17, the company plans an expenditure of Rs 12,500 crore, including Rs 3,500 crore earmarked for land acquisition and the balance Rs 9,000 crore for contractual payments. The DFCC is constructing the 3,350-km-long freight corridor project, including the 1,800 km of its eastern arm between Ludhiana and Dankuni in West Bengal. The Western DFC will come up between Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai. Brandon Fusco Authentic Jersey
Agra’s smart city plan to be vetted in Lucknow
It missed the bus to smart city-dom the first time round but Agra is not taking any chances now. The city’s initial plan for the second round of Smart City Challenge will be discussed in a state-level meeting in Lucknow. The city is among 12 contenders from UPMoradabad, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Bareilly, Jhansi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Ghaziabad and Rampur are the otherstaking positions on the start line. No UP city qualified in the first round. Gaps in the proposal and new plans will be discussed in the meeting. This time, the city has entrusted the preparation of its smart city proposal (SCP) to Crisil Risk and Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, which drafted Solapur’s successful first-round bid. The same consultant will write Jhansi’s SCP as well. Over the past week, CRIS collected information about the city and verified facts and figures. It is also analysing the first round proposal for improvements. Officials said the previous plan was not weak but was hobbled by improper presentation. This time the emphasis will be on the implementation strategy for plans included in the proposal and preparing a better financial model. Agra municipal commissioner Indravikram Singh said, “A state-level meeting regarding the smart city project will take place at the regional centre for urban studies in Lucknow University, which is also the external agency helping in developing an SCP. The gaps which we have identified will be assessed in the meeting. New plans will be discussed. A presentation will be made on the initial planning for Round 2.” “The revised SCP has to be submitted to Ministry of Urban Development by June 30, 2016,” Singh said. Laquon Treadwell Jersey