M A I N   N E W S

Naik warns petro hoarders

NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (PTI) — The Centre today warned that stringent action would be taken against dealers and retailers found indulging in hoarding of petroleum products, the prices of which are slated to be hiked by the month-end.

“Vigilance has been stepped up... those who hoard will have to pay for it,” Petroleum Minister Ram Naik told PTI.

Mr Naik, who had stated yesterday that one-third of the Rs 23,600 crore oil pool deficit would be covered by hiking prices of petrol, diesel, LPG, kerosene and aviation turbine fuel, said hoarding would be construed as an anti-social act.

Petroleum Secretary S. Narayan told PTI that he had issued instructions to oil marketing companies — Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and IBP — to step up monitoring of supply.

“We have asked the marketing companies to check that there are no extra drawal of petro products,” Mr Narayan said adding that the government would deal strictly with dealers and traders found indulging in unfair practices.

He said supplies would also be maintained normally so that the consumers were not inconvenienced.

Following a spurt in global crude prices, which rose three-fold to about $ 36 a barrel in less than two years, the government decided to absorb two-thirds of the increase by slashing taxes and issuance of oil bonds while passing on the rest to consumers.

With the daily consumption of petroleum products at three lakh tonnes, the ministry is apprehensive of panic buying by consumers resulting in hoarding.

But the real worry of the government is hoarding by petrol pumps and dealers who have excess storage capacity of several days’ requirement, official sources said adding that oil companies would have to monitor their stocks and guard against a spurt in demand and artificial shortages.

In view of the existing subsidy level of Rs 5.29 per litre of diesel and the Cabinet’s earlier decision to sell this product at import parity, it is considered most vulnerable to hoarding. Daily consumption of diesel is estimated at 1.3 lakh tonnes or about 1270 lakh litres.

Kerosene is another product where the possibility of hoarding is high, sources said adding that the subsidy on kerosene is Rs 8.21 per litre.

10 pc cut in govt posts

NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (PTI) — The government today announced a 10 per cent cut on the consumption of petrol and other petro-products for staff cars as part of austerity measures to bring down non-plan expenditure.

The austerity measures, which come into immediate effect, include 10 per cent cut in posts, abolition of posts vacant for over a year, restriction on foreign travel besides a 10 per cent mandatory cut in budgetary allocation for non-plan and non-salary expenditure of various ministries.

Petro price hike after Sept 29?

NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (PTI) — The government is unlikely to hike prices of petroleum products before September 29, the day on which byelections are being held for one Lok Sabha and eight Assembly seats.

Even though the Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said only one-third of the Rs 23,600 crore oil pool deficit would be passed on to consumers by way of increase in prices of petrol, diesel, LPG, kerosene and Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), the actual announcement for hike in prices would not be made before September 29, sources said.

Byelections are being held for the Dausa Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant following the death of Congress leader Rajesh Pilot, and eight Assembly seats in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.

The sources said another reason for the delay in announcement of the price hike pertains to the absence of Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, who will return here on September 29 after participating in the IMF meeting at Prague.

Mr Naik had said on Saturday night that the Finance Minister had agreed in principle to take care of one-third of the deficit by slashing customs and excise duties, while the rest would be accounted for by a refund of Rs 4,429 crore deposits with the Finance Ministry and oil bonds.

Sources said that the Finance Ministry officials have worked on two-three combinations of duty adjustments but a final decision would be taken only after Mr Sinha’s approval.