Technology has progressed and there are push factors from abroad but state discoms need to find it feasible to buy

At least two months are left before a new government takes charge, so there is time for two monthly price rises of 50 paise a litre each

The petroleum & natural gas ministry has decided to discontinue the practice of a monthly diesel price increase, indicating putting on hold its plan for a phased decontrol of the fuel’s price. But this has come at a time when the revenue loss on sale of every litre of diesel has shrunk to Rs 5.93 a litre, which could, perhaps, have given the government the best window to effect a complete decontrol.

Rs 60,352-cr impact on power, urea makers; FinMin comes up with its own formula

Even before an empowered group of ministers starts deliberating on a revision in natural gas prices, the finance, power and fertiliser ministries have raised a red flag on the recommendations of the Rangarajan panel. Only the Planning Commission seems to be in agreement with the committee’s proposal to use a proposed formula as “an interim or transitional solution” till March 2017.

Tells Supreme Court system was not transparent

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has widened its probe in the coal block allocation scam to cover the delay in introduction of bidding. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had continued with allocation of blocks through the screening committee route, as the proposal for bidding had been moving back and forth between government departments. CBI had last year limited itself to probing irregularities in the allocation of blocks, without going into the policy issue of bidding.

Their first target could be bulk buyers but state-owned companies are well-entrenched in that market

At 65 million tonnes per annum, diesel accounts for nearly 40 per cent of all petroleum products sold in the country. Not surprisingly, it is a huge opportunity for private oil marketing companies. Now that the government has decided to decontrol diesel prices for bulk users and allowed government-controlled oil marketing companies to raise retail prices in small monthly doses, private oil companies such as Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Shell India have a real opportunity on their hands.

Base price of domestic natural gas comes to around $7.4 per mBtu

Analysts may be seeing a positive for Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in the Rangarajan panel’s recommendations on gas pricing, but the committee’s formula would work out the natural gas price at less than what RIL has been seeking for its KG-D6 block produce. Based on the panel’s formula, the base price of domestic natural gas comes to around $7.4 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), but the pricing formula proposed by RIL, officials say, translates the price into $13-14 an mBtu.

Appoints Foster Wheeler as consultant to prepare project report

Even as domestic gas production has fallen 8 per cent, Oil India Ltd (OIL) is planning to set up a liquefied natural gas ( LNG) receiving terminal in India. The company plans to set up a 2.5-million tonne (mt) capacity terminal. According to an industry executive in the know, Geneva-based Foster Wheeler AG has been appointed consultant to prepare a project report for the foray into imported gas. When asked, Ananth Kumar, director (finance), Oil India, confirmed the appointment of a consultant about a fortnight ago, but did not divulge the name, citing a confidentiality clause in the contract.

After prolonged litigation and arbitration proceedings, Lanco Infratech will be entering into a fresh agreement with the Madhya Pradesh government for supply of the entire 300 Mw power from its Korba power plant in Chattisgarh. The state has agreed to waive the rate ceiling for power to be supplied from the plant, after the two sides reached a settlement through arbitration.

The company had commissioned the plant two years before at a cost of Rs 1,350 crore and was forced to sell it to Punjab in a short-term contract after it found the Rs 2.25 a unit ceiling on power rate was unviable.

The government is likely to exempt companies from paying customs duty on equipment imported for existing mega power plants and for which orders have already been placed.

The new tax regime, expected to protect domestic equipment manufacturers such as BHEL and Larsen & Toubro from a 21 per cent levy on imported gear, will however remove the distinction between mega and non-mega for future power projects.

Busy fighting corruption charges, the government has decided to form two committees of secretaries (CoS) for revamping crucial processes which are at the root of corrupt practices.