Fuel prices slashed
New Delhi: Government on 11 January cut petrol and diesel prices by up to Rs 1.39 and Rs 0.08 per litre respectively despite increasing substantially the excise duty to mop up Rs 1,600 crore during the remainder of financial year 2001-02.

Announcing the cut in prices of the two fuels immediately after finance ministry notified increase in excise duty, petroleum minister Ram Naik told reporters that petrol would now cost Rs 27.54 a litre against Rs 28.93 in Delhi, Rs 30.79 (Rs 31.90) in Mumbai, Rs 29.74 (Rs 30.67) in Chennai and Rs 27.99 (Rs 29.21) in Kolkata.

The cut in retail prices, effective from midnight, was due to subdued international oil prices and adjustment in ex-storage point prices of petrol and diesel.

Diesel would now be available at Rs 17.09 (Rs 17.17) in Delhi, Rs 20.71 (Rs 20.79) in Mumbai, Rs 18.60 (18.65) in Chennai and Rs 17.47 (17.54) in Kolkatta.
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Trai okays BSNL's STD rate cut
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has received telecom regulator's nod for its proposed 62 per cent reduction in long distance (STD) rates, paving the way for its implementation from mid-night of January 13-14.
The clearance to the BSNL came after the Trai recently sought clarifications with regard to the costing structure of STD of the BSNL and some issues relating to routing plan of the BSNL's traffic.

According to new tariff, the BSNL had announced that there would be only two time slabs, namely the peak period from 9 am to 8 pm and off peak period from 8 pm to 9 am. Also there would be only three distance slabs-- between 50 to 200 kms, from 200 to 500 kms and 500 and above.

For the first distance slab of 50-200 kms, the STD rates have been halved from Rs 4.80 per minute to Rs 2.40 during the peak hours while for the 200-500 kms slab, the rates have been slashed to Rs 4.80 a minute from the existing rate of Rs 11.60 per minute.

For the third distance slab of 500 kms and above, rate cut is even sharper, falling to Rs 9 a minute from existing Rs 24 per minute (for 1000 kms and above) and from Rs 17.56 (for 500-1000 kms).
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Industrial growth declines to 2.2%
New Delhi: Industrial growth slid to 2.2 per cent during the first eight months of the current financial year as compared to six per cent in the same period of last fiscal.

The manufacturing sector growth stood at 2.3 per cent during the period as against 6.3 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous year.

Overall industrial growth during November stood at 0.9 per cent as against 7.4 per cent during the same month of last financial year.

The quick estimates of Index of Industrial Production with base 1993-94, released by Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), stated that electricity generation declined to 2.5 per cent during the first eight months as against 4.9 per cent during the same period of last fiscal
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