Cabinet okays sale of IOC’s 24% stake in Lubrizol India
The Cabinet today approved sale of state-owned Indian Oil Corp’s (IOC) 24 per cent stake in Lubrizol India Pvt Ltd to Lubrizol Corporation, USA for an undisclosed sum. “The sale will enable IOC to have long term association with its joint venture partner and … Lubrizol India Pvt Ltd (LIPL) to have access to the latest global additive technologies developed by Lubrizol Corporation, USA,” an official statement said. LIPL, where the US firm holds the remaining 76 per cent stake, is in the lube additives business. “The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today gave its in-principle approval to permit IOC to sell its 24 per cent equity in one of its joint venture companies, Lubrizol India Private Limited (LIPL) to Lubrizol Corporation, USA (LC), the other joint venture partner,” the statement said. Kris Draper Authentic Jersey
Centre made Rs 1.99 lakh crore from levies on petrol, diesel in 2015-16
The massive jump in excise duty on petrol and high speed diesel helped the government mop up nearly 40% of its indirect tax kitty from the two auto fuels in 2015-16, compared to 34% in the previous financial year. A study by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) showed that Union excise duty collection shot up almost 70% from Rs 1.69 lakh crore during 2013-14 to Rs 2.87 lakh crore in 2015-16, with a majority of the contribution being from petrol, diesel, cigarettes and gutka. The indirect tax kitty includes duties from customs, central excise and service tax. Excise revenue from petroleum products, which made up for 52% of collections in 2013-14, went up to almost 69% during 2015-16 as the government resorted to a massive increase in levies in the wake of falling global prices. The central excise duty on petrol and high speed diesel increased from Rs 1.2 per litre and Rs 1.46 per litre to Rs 8.95 per litre and Rs 7.96 per litre respectively during the last two financial years. Revenue from petroleum products went up from Rs 88,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1.99 lakh crore in 2015-16. Tax on sin goods (mainly tobacco products) at Rs 21,000 crore was second highest contributor to indirect taxes. Compared to countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, India has one of the highest retail prices of fuel oil in the subcontinent. The high price of petrol and diesel in India was contrary to the international trend in crude oil prices that crashed from a high of $112 a barrel in 2014 to as low as $30. Though the lower oil prices substantially reduced India’s oil bill as the country depends on 80% imports, domestic prices were kept high by increasing central excise duties. The excess revenue earned was meant to fund government’s social sector schemes. The CAG, which tabled its report in Parliament on Friday, however, highlighted the issue by pointing out how the government has been losing major revenue by giving exemptions to industry. The revenue forgone on account of different exemptions come up to more than Rs 2 lakh crore a year which the auditor has said need to be rationalised. The revenue forgone for FY2016 on excise duties was Rs 2.25 lakh crore — Rs 2.06 lakh crore as general exemptions and Rs 19,000 crore as area-based exemptions. This was over 78% of total revenue earning from central excise. The auditor has observed that though the main objective behind issue of exemption orders is to deal with circumstances of exceptional nature, but this objective was not properly defined. “As such, the duty forgone on account of issue of special exemption orders is not being calculated towards revenue forgone figures,” it noted. Paul Hornung Jersey
ONGC to invest Rs 21,500-cr in India’s deepest gas find
State-owned ONGC will invest over Rs 21,500 crore to develop India’s deepest gas discovery by 2022-23, helping it more than double output from its prime KG basin block. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), which had last year firmed up an investment of Rs 34,012 crore (USD 5.076.37 billion) in bringing to production 10 oil and gas discoveries in its Bay of Bengal block KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5), plans to invest another Rs 21,528.10 crore (USD 3.2 billion) in developing the ultra-deepsea UD-1 find. “We have submitted to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons a declaration of commerciaility (DoC) for the UD-1 find. We will submit a final investment plan, called the field development plan, by end-2017 and hope to bring the discovery to production by 2022-23,” ONGC Director (Offshore) Tapas Kumar Sengupta told PTI. ONGC plans to drill nine wells on the discovery that lies in water depths of 2,400-3,200 metres and will produce a peak output of 19 million standard cubic metres per day. The company had previously decided to develop other discoveries in KG-D5 block and leave the UD-1 find in the same block for a later date as it thought there was no technology available to produce gas from such water depths. Sengupta said that there are consultants who have showed to ONGC that discoveries deeper than UD-1 have been put to production in recent times, particularly in Gulf of Mexico. “A recent expression of interest (EoI) meeting we had for developing the KG finds saw several consultants offering solutions for such water depths,” he said. ONGC is in the process of appointing a consultant who will assist in developing the UD-1 discovery. The 7,294.6 sq km deepsea KG-D5 block, which sits next to Reliance Industries’ flagging KG-D6 fields, has been broadly categorised into Northern Discovery Area (NDA – 3,800.6 sq km) and Southern Discovery Area (SDA – 3,494 sq km). The NDA has 11 oil and gas discoveries while SDA has the nation’s only ultra-deepsea gas find of UD-1. These finds have been clubbed into three groups – Cluster-1, Cluster-II and Cluster-III. Last year, the company finalised a USD 5.07 billion plan for developing the Cluster-II finds by 2019-20. First gas production is envisaged by June 2019 and oil would start flowing from March 2020, he said. From Cluster-II, a peak oil output of 77,305 barrels per day is envisaged within two years of start of production. Gas output is slated to peak to 16.56 million standard cubic metres per day by end-2021. Sengupta also said that Culster-1 field will be developed at an additional investment of Rs 4,259.59 crore and will produce about 3 mmscmd of gas. Cluster-2A mainly comprises oil finds of A2, P1, M3, M1 and G-2-2 in NDA which can produce 77,305 bpd (3.86 million tonnes per annum) and 3.81 mmscmd of gas. Cluster 2B, which is made up of four gas finds — R1, U3, U1, and A1 in NDA — envisages a peak output of 12.75 mmscmd of gas. Peak output is likely to last seven years, he said. Sam Bradford Womens Jersey
High hopes and rough landings for India’s smaller airlines
Indeevar Varma, a human resources manager from Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat, was put off flying with Air Costa, a small regional budget Indian airline, after he says he “was bounced like a ball” during “a rough landing” when he travelled from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad several months ago. “That was the worst landing I’ve encountered,” Mr Varma recalls. Apart from that, “there was nothing unique about the airline but the planes were OK”, he says. Having avoided the carrier for some time, a few weeks ago he decided to give Air Costa another go. He booked a ticket from Ahmedabad to Hyderabad for March 7. A few days before the flight, he received a text message saying the flight had been cancelled. It was on February 28 that Air Costa, which was founded in 2013 and is based in south India, suspended flights as it faces a cash crisis. The sudden suspension follows a similar situation eights months ago, when Air Pegasus, a Bangalore-based regional carrier with three 66-seat aircraft, abruptly stopped flying because of financial difficulties, after operating for just over a year. These events raise questions over the viability of regional carriers in the cut-throat aviation market in India, where a flurry of regional services in the past couple of years launched with high hopes. Air Costa is desperately trying to raise funds from investors. The airline is owned by LEPL Group, which has interests in property and renewable energy and was founded by the entrepreneur LP Bhaskara Rao. Robby Fabbri Authentic Jersey
Air India rot runs deep amid understating losses, bleeding international ops
Air India has been under reporting losses for at least four years, says the country’s top auditor. This under-reporting is not any insignificant amount but a sum of over Rs 6,800 crore between 2012-13 and 2015-16. The airline has, as expected, said it did not do any under provisioning while asserting that its Rs 105 crore operating profit in FY16 was indeed a profit, never mind the observations of the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) that the airline actually posted an operating loss of Rs 321 crore last fiscal. Since the two erstwhile airlines (Air India and Indian Airlines) merged to form the present entity, the measly Rs 105 crore operating profit was the first time in a decade that the word ‘profit’ was used for Air India in any form. Now even this figure has been called into question, raising doubts about the accounting standards followed by the state-owned carrier. As the airline and the C&AG continue to differ over what ‘provisioning’ actually means in standard accounting practice, it is interesting to examine the detailed explanations and instances C&AG has given in its report, of Air India’s operational blunders during the four years under review. Mike Hoffman Jersey
Yes, Air India Never Made Any Profit, It Under- Reported It’s Original Loss Of Rs 321 Crore
Apex Auditor, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has revealed that Air India had actually incurred an operating loss of Rs 321.4 crore last fiscal year. However, Air India reported that it had made an operating profit. The CAG said that there was no fudging of numbers, however, the figures reported by the airline are “actually under-reporting of loss”. Air India, still alive on taxpayers’ money, reported an operation profit of Rs 105 crore in 2015-16, a first in over a decade. “For 2015-16 where Air India has reported an operating profit of approximately Rs. 105 crore, the audit of Air India’s standalone accounts for 2015-16 has been completed,” Deputy CAG Pradeep Rao said. About the operating profit which Air India has stated it has made in 2015-16, Rao said that in the view of CAG, “it is actually an operating loss of Rs. 321.4 crore”. Based on the observations made by statutory auditor of the company and the subsequent check by CAG, “we have found that they have not made provisions which they should have made in terms of standard accounting procedures”, he noted. Rao spoke about Air India’s financial performance during the 2015-16 fiscal while briefing reporters about the CAG’s performance audit on ‘Turnaround Plan (TAP) and Financial Restructuring Plan (FRP) of Air India Ltd’. Starlin Castro Jersey
BJP win revives Jewar airport hopes
With BJP’s clean sweep in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, a proposed mega infrastructure project — an international airport in Jewar — could finally see the light of day. Talk of the second international airport in Greater Noida resurfaced on Saturday, with the winning candidate for the Jewar assembly seat, Dhirendra Singh, listing it as his priority and Union minister for culture and tourism Mahesh Sharma, who is the MP from Gautam Budh Nagar, saying he would fulfil his promise to the electorate. Union home minister Rajnath Singh, while campaigning in Jewar last month, had also said the Jewar international airport, first proposed by him when he was CM of UP in 2001, had already got the required approval from the Centre. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to develop world-class infrastructure in the country, which will help generate jobs,” Sharma told TOI. “The people of UP have shown their faith in the PM’s policies. We in turn will fulfil the aspirations of the people and my constituencies. We will seriously work towards establishing the airport in Jewar,” Sharma said. Jack Roslovic Authentic Jersey
CIAL Model redefines perceptions of development: CM
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday lauded the Cochin International Airport model of development, saying that the growth of the airport had led to changes in perceptions on developmental activities. “The CIAL model refutes the general perception that ensuring development is the responsibility of the government alone,” the Chief Minister said. He was speaking at the inauguration of the international terminal (T3) at the airport. He also opened the four-lane road linking the airport to the national highway along with an over-bridge. The Chief Minister also launched the augmentation of the solar power generation capacity at the airport. “The Kannur airport is expected to be ready in another six months, and a detailed survey for a possible airport near Sabarimala is under way,” he said. The State government has taken up issues pertaining to the Kozhikode airport with the Civil Aviation Ministry. The Directorate of Civil Aviation has also been contacted. Land acquisition for the airport will be expedited, Mr. Vijayan added. The Chief Minister said CIAL had also displayed its social responsibility by providing jobs to those who were displaced by the airport project. Besides, the airport authority is providing a total of ?17 crore to various panchayats and the Angamaly municipality for various development projects, which include drinking water projects in the neighbouring panchayats. Alex Galchenyuk Womens Jersey
Make solar power generation easier, fix net meter flaws, officials told
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), in an effort to ratchet up solar power generation, will take steps to make net meters easily available in the city. Sudhir Chabbra, chief engineer (commercial), has directed all subdivision officials to ensure a hassle-free procedure is followed to get net meters installed at consumers’ homes. There were allegations that some consumers are not getting the rebate mandated as per the solar policy owing to some glitches in net meters. On Thursday, the chief engineer (commercial) wrote to senior officials of DHBVN in Hisar, stating that accounting of solar power generation and rebate is not being carried out properly at many rooftop solar plants set up by consumers. “This is creating a lot of hardships to consumers, and is adversely affecting the scheme,” the letter read. This hurdle poses a serious concern as the department is taking all efforts to scale up the drive to ensure maximum number of consumers install rooftop panels. “The scheme is designed to tackle air pollution arising out of the use of diesel gensets across Gurgaon,” an official said. The chief engineer asked billing agencies concerned to ensure that proper accounting is carried out through net meters and rebates are given to eligible consumers. “It has also been instructed that field officials should also be sensitised on the issue and a simplified procedure for initiation of billing should be sent to all sub-divisional officials so that the computer-generated billing can be launched by March 31,” an official told TOI. Discom officials said the software that will carry out billing as per the guidelines is in the final stages of completion. “The consumers are facing trouble since the software is not ready. All the preparations have been done now. We are in the final stage of the process.” In an attempt to lure more people into adopting solar power generation, the Haryana government came up with the grid-connected solar plant scheme in 2014, making it mandatory for consumers with area up to 500 square yards to install solar power panels at their houses, for which the government will award them “bountiful” subsidy in power consumption. The same policy has been made mandatory for schools, malls, hotels and industrial units also. Under the Haryana renewable energy department guidelines, domestic consumers can avail of Re 1 incentive per one unit solar power they generate. Industrial consumers can avail of 25 paisa per unit of power generated. According to officials, around 31 net meters have been installed in Gurgaon and around 10 MW solar power is generated. The department, according to them, is planning a three-fold increase in solar power generation this year. As many as 60 more net meters will be installed in the city to achieve the target. According to an official, to get solar panels installed, applicants are supposed to get a sanction from additional deputy commissioners. “Only suppliers authorized by the Ministry of Renewable Energy will install the system,” the official said. A 1KW solar power panel costs Rs 75,000–80,000. “When the system is installed, the relevant papers will be uploaded in the portal,” the official said. “The discom will check that system and issue the consumer a certificate for net metering. At this step, the discom lines will be connected with the plant. The bi-directional meter will be then added to the system,” he said. Menelik Watson Authentic Jersey
India’s solar capacity grows over 3 folds to 10,000 Megawatt in three years
India’s solar power generation capacity has crossed 10,000 megawatt (MW), a more than three-time jump in less than three years as government pushes for renewable energy sources to meet galloping demand. The milestone came as NTPC Ltd, India’s largest power producer, commissioned a 45 MW solar power project at Bhadla in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. “Bright Future: India has crossed 10,000 MW of Solar power capacity today. More than 3 times increase in less than 3 years,” Power, Coal, Mines, New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted. India solar power generation capacity stood at 2,650 MW on May 26, 2014. As much as 14,000 MW (or 14 gigawatt) of solar projects are currently under development and about 6 GW is to be auctioned soon. In 2016, about 4 GW of solar capacity was added, the fastest pace till date. According to power ministry estimates, another 8.8 GW capacity is likely to be added in 2017, including about 1.1 GW of rooftop solar installations. Government is targeting 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy capacity by 2022. Total renewable energy generation capacity is envisaged at 175 GW by 2022. Earlier last month, lower capital expenditure and cheaper credit had pulled down solar tariff to a new low of Rs 2.97 per unit in an auction conducted for 750 MW capacity in Rewa Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh. The auction was conducted by a joint venture of Madhya Pradesh government and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). Last year in January, solar power tariff had dropped to a new low, with Finland-based energy firm Fortum Finnsurya Energy quoting Rs 4.34 a unit to bag the mandate to set up a 70-MW solar plant under NTPC’s Bhadla Solar Park tender. In November 2015, the tariff had touched Rs 4.63 per unit following aggressive bidding by US-based SunEdison, the world’s biggest developer of renewable energy power plants. Joe Flacco Jersey