IOC not to hike petrol, diesel rates for 3 months
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation has ruled out any hike in the prices of petrol and diesel for at least three months despite losing about Rs 200 crore a month due to high global crude prices.

New IOC chairman M S Ramachandran said other oil PSUs were also likely to follow the same line. IOC had discussions with Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum on the issue.

He said crude prices had increased by about 4 dollars a barrel and this would impose an additional burden of at least Rs 200 crore a month on IOC, which has a market share of over 55 per cent, without any change in price line for petrol and diesel.
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RBI revises WMA limits by Rs 752 crore
Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India has revised the normal Ways and Means Advances (WMA) limits (loans to State governments) by Rs 752 crore to Rs 6,035 crore.

The present scheme for special WMA and minimum balance would continue, the RBI said here in a statement adding that it would continue to be linked to investments made by state governments in GOI securities.

On overdraft regulation scheme, the apex bank said states would be allowed to run an overdraft for 12 consecutive working days as at present.

In case the overdraft appeared in the state's account and remained beyond 12 consecutive working days, the RBI and its agencies would stop payments on behalf of the concerned state governments, it added.
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Govt issues Rs 9,000 cr bonds to oil PSUs
New Delhi: The government has issued bonds worth Rs 9,000 crore to state-run oil companies to liquidate about 80 per cent of their outstandings with the oil pool account.

"As part of the dismantling of Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) from today, bonds worth Rs 9,000 crore were issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 30 March 2002 to liquidate 80 per cent of the oil pool deficit," petroleum minister Ram Naik said.

The oil pool account, a complex mechanism of subsidising PDS kerosene and domestic cooking gas (LPG), is estimated to net a deficit of close to Rs 13,000 crore presently.
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NHRC indicts Gujarat govt
New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission has accused the Gujarat government of failing to stop the communal violence in the state.

The NHRC has also asked to transfer investigation of critical cases to CBI and establishment of special courts to try them.

In its first set of recommendations for immediate consideration for central and state governments, the commission said it has received "widespread" allegations that FIRs have been poorly or wrongly recorded and that investigations were being "influenced" by extraneous considerations or players.

"The Commission is of the view that the integrity of the process has to be restored. It, therefore, recommends the entrusting of certain critical cases to the CBI."

"These include the cases relating to Godhra incident, which is at present being investigated by the government railway police, Chamanpura (Gulbarga Society) incident, Naroda Patiya incident, Best Bakery case in Vadodra and the Sardarpura case in Mehsana district," the commission said.

The Commission has also recommended that special courts should try these cases on a day-to-day basis and the judges should be handpicked by the chief justice of Gujarat high court.
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Former CNN executive Ed Turner dead
Atlanta: Ed Turner, who helped establish CNN as a major news organisation, died on 30 March. He was 66.

Turner died at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., after battling liver cancer.

Turner was hired in 1980 as one of the first news professionals brought into the company. The fact that he coincidentally shared the last name of founder Ted Turner earned him the nickname "No Relation" Turner.

Turner retired in 1998 as vice-president in charge of newsgathering and tried unsuccessfully to launch California News Service, a smaller version of CNN.
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Govt control on petroleum pricing ends
New Delhi: The administered pricing mechanism (APM) for petroleum sector has been dismantled from 1 April. Petroleum product pricing, except for subsidised petrol and diesel, will now be market-determined, petroleum minister Ram Naik said.

The Union Budget in February 2002 had factored in global crude oil prices at $19.5 a barrel. But crude prices are now averaging $23.5 per barrel.

An increase of $3 in crude oil prices translates into an additional burden of Rs 2.30 per litre on petrol, Rs 2 per litre on diesel, Rs 1.35 per litre on kerosene and Rs 15-20 per cylinder on LPG. "Subsidy on PDS kerosene and domestic LPG will be phased out in three to five years," Naik said.

Going by the definition of post-APM pricing of petrol and diesel, the consumer prices of these products are supposed to be fixed at the import parity level and will be the summation of the landed cost at the nearest port location, applicable Customs duties, actual freight from the port location to the market, local taxes and distribution cost.

So there is actually little room for the government to step in unless it decides to relax the customs duty or the applicable taxes on oil companies.
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