Petrol price cut, diesel remains
New Delhi: Petrol prices have been cut by about three per cent a litre or by Rs1.67, though diesel prices remained unchanged.

Petroleum in Delhi will now cost Rs37.84 a litre, in Mumbai Rs43.23, in Chennai Rs41.25, and in Kolkata Rs40.89.

The price cut is due to a fall in international crude oil prices by around $3 a barrel fall during the last 10 days.

On November 4 the government had increased petrol prices by around five per cent. Diesel prices were increased by up to Rs2.53 a litre and cooking gas by Rs20 a cylinder.

The Left parties remain unsatisfied with the decision and said the reduction in petrol price was inadequate.
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Oil falls below $47 barrel
London: Oil prices fell on Monday to an 8-week low to below $47 a barrel.

US light crude fell 53 cents to a low of $46.59 a barrel, 16 per cent below a record high of $55.67 recorded on Oct 25. London Brent fell 91 cents to $41.40 a barrel.

The fall in oil prices is due to a rebound in crude oil stocks in the United States. Supplies have risen by 22 million barrels in the past seven weeks, due partly to the highest OPEC production in decades.

Heating oil inventories in the key markets of the United States, Germany and Japan are much lower than normal for the time of year, spurring fears of a supply squeeze, should winter start earlier or with greater intensity.

Temperatures in the key oil consuming areas of the US were below normal, but were expected to go up this week.
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Govt gets tough with money launderers
New Delhi: The government is putting in place measures to check money laundering and large scale tax evasion and corruption. The finance ministry has now finalised the rules under the prevention of money laundering (PMLB) law, setting separate threshold limits for mandatory reporting of non-cash and cash transactions.

Banks, financial institutions, stock brokers and other intermediaries have been asked to start reporting non-cash transactions of over Rs 1 crore a month to the financial intelligence unit (FIU) set up to track and curb money laundering offences.

Non-cash deals include payments made through cheques and demand drafts.

The limit has been set at Rs10 lakh and above for cash deals in one calendar month, according to senior finance ministry officials. This means banks, FIs and stock brokers will have to maintain and furnish a record of all cash deals above this limit to the director of the FIU.

A higher ceiling for non-cash deals has come as a relief to banks, which would have otherwise been swamped with paperwork relating to thousands of transactions.

India joins several countries, which have legislation to combat money laundering.
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China to relax media investment norms
Hong Kong: The Chinese government has relaxed investment norms in media. Now international groups will be allowed to invest in Chinese television production joint ventures from the end of the month.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and US media giant, Viacom, are likely to be among the front- runners in making an entry into the country.

This marks an important step in the opening up of China's heavily protected media sector.

China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced this year it would lift the ban on foreign investment in the domestic television industry. But it has held off from issuing the terms on which international companies can enter the market until this week.

Under the new rules effective from November 28, Chinese companies must hold a majority stake in joint ventures. The joint ventures must also have a unique logo a provision intended to ensure they are not used to promote the brand of foreign parents.
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Power norms being tightened for states
New Delhi: The Central government is tightening up the electric power supply system and putting in place more stringent criteria for the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP).

This includes increasing the number of parameters on which states are monitored on power supply from 15 to 29 and may be raised further to 40 by the end of next month.

The parameters include setting up of computerised billing centres, outsourcing meter-reading, energy accounting, energy audits, turnkey contracting and establishment of customer care centers.

Hence State Electricity Boards (SEBs) will be rated according to the new APDRP criteria and the CRISIL rating of state electricity boards (SEBs) will be matched to the APDRP rating.

Regional review meetings, starting this week, will look into how states have reformed the power sector.

The attempt is to collate best practices in a state and share them with other states the emphasis being on power demand and capacity addition programmes.

The government wants the states to meet at least two-thirds of their power supply with the balance being provided by central utilities like National Thermal Power Corporation. The emphasis is on transmission capacities also. This requires transmission networks approved by regulators with multi-year tariffs to be in place.

The APDRP was introduced in 2003 with the aim of accelerating distribution sector reforms. It aims to bring about commercial viability in the power sector, reduce outages and interruptions and increase consumer satisfaction.
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