Karimnagar/Hyderabad, July 2: The district administration has decided to continue the restricted supply of the diesel even after a fresh consignment of about 500 kilolitres of the fuel arrived in the district on Wednesday. The restricted supply in accordance to the stipulated quota for different category of vehicles will continue for a few more days till the demand is met.

Lorry owners staged a protest against the short supply of diesel in Kadiri town of Anantapur district on Monday. They were facing a shortage of diesel for the last few weeks due to short supply to the town. Earlier, nearly one lakh litres of diesel used to be supplied to the town everyday, but this has come down to 50,000 to 60,000 litres, with no supply for one or two days. This resulted in a high demand for diesel.

The government has increased petroleum products' prices for next 15 days by Rs 3 per litre except kerosene oil to pass on the impact of surge in international market rates to the consumers. The new prices will be effective from May 1 (today).

THE United Nations was to halt food hand-outs for up to 800,000 Palestinians yesterday because of a severe fuel shortage in Gaza brought on by an Israeli economic blockade. John Ging, the director of operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees, said there had been an inadequate supply of fuel from Israel to Gaza for 10 months until it was finally halted two weeks ago. "The devastating humanitarian impact is entirely predictable," Mr Ging said.

State-run firms together lost Rs 440 cr per day in the fortnight ended March 31.

The government has increased petroleum products' prices, which will be effective for the fortnight, from March 1 to March 15. The petrol price has been raised from Rs 53.70 per litre to Rs 58.70, diesel from Rs 32.57 per litre to Rs 36.07, kerosene oil from Rs 35.23 per litre to Rs 38.73 and HOBC per litre from Rs 64.88 to Rs 69.88, a notification of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) said. The oil prices in the international market showed a record surge during the last several months, which compelled the government to pass on partial increase to consumers, said a government spokesman. The petrol and HOBC prices have been raised by Rs 5.00 per litre, while prices of kerosene oil and light diesel oil have been raised by Rs 3.50 per litre. The spokesman further said the government will continue to provide a subsidy of Rs 16.82 per litre on kerosene oil and Rs 15.30 per litre on light diesel oil, after the price increase. The price computation is carried out by OGRA in accordance with the formula prescribed by the Federal Government. It requires that the price be based on average Arab Gulf prices for the last fortnight for Naphtha, Diesel, Kerosene and HSFO, to which Inland Freight Equalisation Margin (IFEM) is added, which reflects estimated transportation cost of the products to the 29 depots in the country for the purpose of price equalisation. Government levies viz. petroleum development levy and sales tax are added to notified prices. Copyright Business Recorder, 2008

The 5% reduction in freight rates for motor fuels announced in the Railway Budget is aimed at weaning away petrol and diesel traffic from road transport but will not result in any reduction in pump prices as the oil companies will save a mere Rs 50 crore annually due to the low volumes moved through rail. The new rate will bring down the cost of moving petrol and diesel over a distance of 100 km to Rs 172.40 per tonne from Rs 181. The rate for moving motor fuels over 1,000 km would cost Rs 1,184.40 a tonne against Rs 1,243.60. For a distance of over 2,000 km, the cost would come down to Rs 2,131.80 per tonne from Rs 2,238.40. The oil companies move less than 40% of the petrol and diesel consumed in the country by rail. The price build-up of petrol and diesel factors is a notional 50% of the prevailing rail freight. The 5% cut in rail freight will therefore not have an impact on the price build-up as the new freight charge would continue to be higher than what is accounted for in the price build-up. Following this 5% cut in freight on the two auto fuels, the railways hope to wean the petroleum cargo transport business away from roads. Oil firms move over 40% of the annual consumption of petrol and diesel through pipelines, the cheapest mode, and 20% by road.

Traffic on Sunday morning almost came to a standstill as Trinamul Congress activists today took to the streets, blocking arterial roads in several parts in the city, to protest against Centre's decision to hike the price of petroleum products.