From today, avail 0.75 per cent discount for cashless refuelling
Consumers will get the promised discount on cashless fuel purchases at petrol pumps run by state oil companies from Tuesday.“The discount will be credited to customer’s account by way of `cash back’ within maximum three working days,“ Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, said in a statement on Monday. Last Thursday , the government had directed state-run oil companies to offer a 0.75% discount on the price of petrol and diesel to consumers paying by cards or mobile wallets to push people towards digital payments in the face of a severe cash crunch brought on by the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.` So, a person purchasing fuel for Rs 1,000 using credit and debit cards or wallets will get . 7.5 back in his account in ` three days. Oil companies decided on the `cash back’ route after four days of talks with banks and wallet companies. They had also considered an upfront discount to those paying digitally, but this seemed difficult to implement. Cash back is an often used method by card and mobile wallet companies to persuade consumers to use their services. The discount on fuel purchase is one among the many incentives the government has introduced recently to make people adopt digital means of payment even as banks struggle to meet customers’ cash demand. Nearly 4.5 crore customers buy petrol or diesel every day and collectively contribute about Rs 1,800 crore in transactions. Usually, just 20% of these transactions are digital, but in November, these have risen to 40% of the total due to the cash crunch. Brayden Point Authentic Jersey
Government to seek legal view on joining Reliance Industries arbitration
Government is considering joining the arbitration initiated by Reliance Industries and its partners against a $1.55 billion demand raised on them for “unfairly enriching” by producing natural gas belonging to ONGC. RIL and its partners BP Plc of the UK and Canada’s Niko Resources had on November 11 brought an arbitration notice against the government, disputing the $1.55 billion demand. “We have received the notice and are studying it. We will take an opinion of the law ministry on joining the arbitration,” a senior oil ministry official said. Under the dispute resolution mechanism set out in the production sharing contract (PSC), an arbitration notice over a dispute has to be followed up within six months by naming arbitrators. So, RIL and its partners have time till May 10 to name an arbitrator for the dispute. The government will thereafter name its arbitrator and the two will then decide on a presiding judge of the three-member arbitration panel. Often, the two do not agree on the presiding arbitrator and the matter over such appointment lands either at the International Court of Justice or the Supreme Court. “It is a long-drawn affair. If you are looking for a quick-fix solution, it won’t come so easy,” the official said. The oil ministry had on November 3 issued a notice to RIL, Niko and UK’s BP Plc seeking $1.47 billion for producing in the seven years ended March 31, 2016 about 338.332 million British thermal unit of gas that had seeped or migrated from the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) blocks into their adjoining KG-D6 in the Bay of Bengal. After deducting $71.71 million royalty paid on the gas produced and adding an interest at the rate of Libor plus 2 per cent, totalling USD 149.86 million, a total demand of $1.55 billion was made on RIL, BP and Niko. RIL is the operator of the KG-D6 block with 60 per cent interest while BP holds 30 per cent. The remaining 10 per cent is with Niko Resources. The Justice (retd) A P Shah Committee, in its August 28 report, concluded that there has been “unjust enrichment” to the contractor of the block KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) due to production of the migrated gas from ONGC’s blocks KG-DWN-98/2 and Godavari PML. The government, the official said, has accepted the recommendations of the committee and consequently, it decided to claim restitution from RIL-BP-Niko for “the unjust benefit received and unfairly retained”. So, a notice was sent, he said, adding that the government is also pressing RIL to pay USD 174.9 million of additional profit petroleum after certain costs were disallowed because of KG-D6 output being lower than targets. The cost recovery issue is also being arbitrated separately. Originally, ONGC had sued RIL for producing gas that had migrated from its blocks KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) and Godavari PML in the KG basin to adjoining KG-D6 block of RIL. Under direction of the Delhi High Court, the government had appointed a one-man committee under retired Justice A P Shah to go into the issue. Justin Tucker Womens Jersey
Air India turns to retd maintenance engineers to fight staff crunch
Faced with acute shortage of engineering staff, national carrier Air India has re-hired around 150 retired aircraft maintenance engineers for a three-year period on contract basis. While local airlines are expanding their fleet with the domestic air passenger traffic growing at over 20 per cent for nearly two years, there is a significant shortage of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AME), the industry insiders say. Against this backdrop, Air India has started roping in retired AMEs and so far around 150 of them have joined back, Air India officials said. “I have a shortage of 150-200 engineers and I have employed my retired staff to fill up the gap…I have taken about 150 people on a contract for three years,” Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) CEO H R Jagannath said here today. There has been no recruitment of AMEs in the last 10 to 12 years, he said, adding currently Air India group has around 750 such engineers including the retired individuals who have been taken on three-year contracts. As a thumb rule, one aircraft requires around seven engineers. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, AIESL provides MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) services to aircraft. Noting that 10-15 AMEs are retiring every month, Jagannath said Air India has also started recruitment drive for these engineers. Currently, regulations do not allow private individuals to apply for AME examination and they have to be sponsored. As part of efforts to deal with the situation, Jagannath said private candidates should be allowed to appear for oral examination conducted by aviation regulator DGCA. “DGCA has agreed to it (allowing private candidates to take orals). They (DGCA) are very proactive and by March, I expect the rules to be in place,” he added. Klay Thompson Womens Jersey
Grant of new slots at Pune airport creates rift between airlines, AAI
Indian carriers are not just fighting with their peers for market share but also for landing and take-off slots at capacity constrained Indian airports. This latest reason behind the rift is the new slots at Pune airport, which Vistara, AirAsia and Air India were awarded, overlooking requests from airlines like IndiGo, SpiceJetBSE 1.68 %, Jet AirwaysBSE 0.55 % and GoAir. The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) has objected to Airports Authority of India’s (AAI’s) move to allocate three pairs of new slots at Pune airport to Vistara, AirAsia and Air India. In a missive to AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra and aviation secretary RN Choubey, FIA has said that “they find this unilateral allocation unfair as well as breaking the thumb rule of fair competition, the level-playing field”. “We would, therefore, request the authority to kindly allow FIA member airlines an equal opportunity and a level-playing field in respect of these additional slots created at PNQ as ideally, the FIA member airlines who were earlier refused due to non-availability should be the one to be given the preference. Given past rejections, certain airlines had also stopped applying for new/additional slots due to obvious reasons,” read the letter written by Ujjway Dey, associate director of FIA. IndiGo, SpiceJet, GoAir and Jet Airways constitute FIA. Air India, which was earlier a member, pulled out of FIA. Newer carriers such as Vistara and AirAsia, that wish to become a part of FIA, have not been allowed entry into the group, as FIA has challenged their creation in courts in India. According to the procedures, the airport operator allocates slots in consultation with all stakeholders. Pune airport is an Indian Ai Force airport that is operated by AAI. AAI officials, however, said that they focus on evenly allocating slots and not on new or old airlines. “We, as an airport operator, cannot discriminate between one carrier and the other. The slots were allocated to airlines with least presence at the airport, so that it’s evenly distributed among airlines,” said an AAI official, who did not want to be identified. Frans Nielsen Jersey
GAIL gets 2nd extension for Kochi-Mangalore pipeline
State-run gas utility GAIL India Ltd has won a second extension for completing the Kochi- Bangalore-Mangalore natural gas pipeline as it faces unprecedented problems in getting land in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Oil regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) last week gave GAIL four more years till February 2019 to complete the 1104-km Kochi-Koottanad-Bangalore-Mangalore natural gas pipeline. The Rs 44.93 billion was originally to be completed in March 2013 but the deadline was first relaxed to June 2015. “Considering the recommendation of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the state of unprecedented socio-political hindrance in execution of the project. PNGRB has decided to revise the completion schedule from June 2015 to February 2019,” PNGRB said in the December 8 notice. GAIL is to lay the pipeline in two phases – a 44-km Phase-1 connecting Kochi port to FACT plant in the city and a 1,060-km Phase-II taking the line from there to Thrissur- Kotanand and Pallakad in Kerala and onward to Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu before reaching Bangalore. From Kootannd a branch line is to go to Kozhikode and onward to Mangalore. Phase-I of the pipeline has been commissioned, which takes the gas imported at Kochi LNG terminal to the fertilizer plant in the city. However, the Phase-II has been languishing depsite the Supreme Court supporting it. Construction has not progressed due to protests by farmers over laying of the pipeline through farm land. This has led to Petronet LNG Ltd’s 5 million tons a year liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility at Kochi running at less than five per cent of the capacity as there is no pipeline to take the fuel to consumers. Kyle Fuller Jersey
Air Fares show sharp dip in November
The average fares on some of the busiest domestic air routes fell sharply in November as compared to the same period last year thanks to low fuel prices and airlines adding planes to their fleet. According to an analysis done by a leading travel portal, the average airfare in November was down by 4% to 30% as compared to November last year. Industry experts attribute the fall in ticket prices to low jet fuel prices and schedule airlines ramping up their fleets to corner a larger pie of the domestic market share. The Hyderabad-Bangalore sector witnessed the sharpest fall in fares of 29.9% while fares on the Pune-Bangalore sector fell by 17.7%. Delhi-Pune fares fell by 10.3% while Kolkata-Delhi fares were down by 13.8%. Fares on the Mumbai-Delhi, Goa- Mumbai and Chennai- Mumbai sectors also witnessed sharp decline. “Those who book in advance will travel cheap whether it’s the lean season or the peak season,” said aviation expert Rajji Rai. Average Fare – Top 11 Sector Sector Nov’16 Nov’15 % of change BOMBAY-DELHI 4,484 4,666 -3.9% DELHI-BANGALORE 4,689 5,401 -13.2% BOMBAY-BANGALORE 3,555 3,376 5.3% DELHI-PUNE 4,571 5,096 -10.3% HYDERABAD-BANGALORE 2,408 3,435 -29.9% GOA-BOMBAY 3,493 3,697 -5.5% DELHI-HYDERABAD 4,307 3,929 9.6% KOLKATA-DELHI 4,502 5,224 -13.8% CHENNAI-BOMBAY 4,209 4,451 -5.4% DELHI-CHENNAI 5,042 4,944 2.0% PUNE-BANGALORE 2,807 3,412 -17.7% Linval Joseph Womens Jersey
Pedro Heilbron elected new chairman of Star Alliance CEB
Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa Holdings and of Copa Airlines, has been elected as the new Chairman of the Star Alliance Chief Executive Board (CEB). He succeeds Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada, who held the post for the last four years. Speaking on behalf of all Star Alliance CEOs, Heilbron said: “I would like to thank Calin for the time he invested and his dedication to the role of CEB Chairman. His four year tenure came at a crucial time in the Alliance’s development, during which the organisation moved from a strategy of membership growth to one of greater cohesion and the delivery of more integrated, modern products.” In his role as CEB Chairman, Heilbron will conduct the two annual board meetings and act as the designated spokesperson for the board. Bill Bates Womens Jersey
Seven reasons why SpiceJet is a mispriced opportunity
Note these points about SpiceJet. One, the company reported a 146 per cent increase in profit after tax for the second quarter of the current financial year, compared to a year before. Based on relevant annualisation, the company is possibly selling at a single-digit discounting. Two, the air carrier reported its best-ever second quarter, an index of how it transformed costs into surpluses, maintained a high operating efficiency and raised average fares five per cent, even as others were discounting. Three, SpiceJet represents superior bottom line quality, no sale of assets subsequently leased back, which could have replaced high interest and depreciation with moderate lease rentals. When you comb IndiGo’s fine print for the quarter, an evidently handsome profit before tax of Rs 176 crore transforms into a staggering operating loss after you deduct Rs 133 crore on account of sale and lease back (engineering credit) and Rs 160 crore for ‘other income’. Four, IndiGo is four times SpiceJet by fleet, and eight times by market capitalisation, though the latter reported Rs 176 crore more in adjusted pre-tax profit. Five, IndiGo reported a relatively modest 82 per cent load factor for the second quarter, compared to SpiceJet’s 92.3 per cent, a case of a smaller airline working harder. SpiceJet has been a consistent outlier; it has recorded load factor of 90 per cent-plus every single month since April 2015. Load factor of 92.3 per cent during the second quarter was the highest in 19 months. Even in the high-ness, SpiceJet’s story is getting incrementally better (cancellation rate 0.5 per cent, against an industry average that is possibly twice this number), with every incremental percentage translating into an attractive bottom line increase. Six, SpiceJet is a mid-sized company run like an insecure start-up that has been motivated into sustained aggression by the spectre of a larger competitor. Result: Shrinking ground times, enhanced aircraft availability, declining cost per available seat km and aggressive contract renegotiations, the value of which are not reflecting faithfully in the market cap. Seven, once debt-heavy, it has repaid Rs 1,800 crore of its total debt of Rs 2,300 crore in less than two years, a clear glimpse of how profitable this business truly is. SpiceJet now possesses a net liability of only Rs 200 crore and should turn net worth-positive this financial year. So, why is SpiceJet extensively discounted? Could be because it almost closed shop two years ago and could be because of the uncertainty related to the previous promoter’s warrants pending conversion into equity (unlikely to transpire but the market needs certainty). Let me leave you with a thought. After SpiceJet has cleared its liabilities, what will it do with the cash? Buy aircraft, of course. So, let us assume it places an order for 100 aircraft, puts these to field and then does a sale and lease back (with only a marginal reduction in load factor). It might, then, be interesting to look at its numbers (everything else remaining the same). And, then, the mother of all arguments: If the two per cent of India’s population that flies adds 100 basis points, established brands like SpiceJet could be laughing all the way to their digital wallets. Adrian Peterson Womens Jersey
Qatar to merge LNG producers Qatargas and RasGas creating global operator
Qatar, the world’s largest liquified natural gas producer, announced on Sunday it is to merge state-owned Qatargas and RasGas to create a “truly unique global energy operator”. Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, president and chief executive of state-owned Qatar Petroleum, said the move to the merger would begin right away and the companies would begin operating under a single entity, named Qatargas, within 12 months. He said the move would save “hundreds of millions of dollars”. “The integration aims to create a truly unique global energy operator in terms of size, service and reliability,” he told reporters at a news conference. Kaabi added that there would be no job losses on the “operating side”, but it was unclear if there would be cuts elsewhere. Qatargas, in its present form, is the largest LNG producer in the world, according to its website. RasGas, holds no assets but oversees and manages all LNG operations in the energy-rich emirate. Both companies have joint ventures with oil companies including ExxonMobil, Total and Shell. Kemal Ishmael Jersey
Lucknow, Jaipur airports upgraded to CAT IIIB
In a big boost ahead of the fog season when flight disruptions peak, the Jaipur and Lucknow airports have been upgraded to CAT IIIB, which enables aircraft to land when the visibility is down to 50 metres. Delhi is only other airport in the country that is CAT III B compliant. “The task to upgrade Jaipur and Lucknow airport to ILS CAT-IIIB operations is accomplished by Airports Authority of India (AAI) on the assigned target date. With effect from December 8, Jaipur and Lucknow airports have become CAT-IIIB compliant airports,” AAI said in a statement. Earlier Jaipur Airport was equipped with ILS, precision approach CAT-I and with this procedures aircraft were able to land when Runway Visual Range of 550m or more. Lucknow airport was equipped with ILS precision approach CAT-II and under this procedure aircraft were only able to land with Runway Visual Range is 300M or more. “With the implementation of ILS CAT-IIIB operations from Jaipur and Lucknow airports, aircraft will face less delay or cancellation of flight during the winter fog season. The problem faced by passengers during fog period would be reduced with the new upgraded CAT-IIIB system which fully supports continued flight operations and ground movement of aircraft during periods of low visibility (when RVR is as low as 50m),” AAI said. “By upgrading the Jaipur and Lucknow airports to CAT-IIIB level, the traffic bound for IGI airport can now be diverted to Jaipur and Lucknow during the peak foggy season which, in turn, will lessen the burden at IGI airport as well,” it said. Salvador Perez Womens Jersey