Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Monday presented tax-free budget proposals for the year 2019-20 with a total outlay of Rs. 1,58,493 crore. With parliamentary elections round the corner, the Congress government also announced a cut in fuel prices. The State government has decided to reduce petrol price by Rs. 5 per litre and […]
Day: February 19, 2019
‘No increase in power tariff for next 5 years’
TDP State president and Energy Minister K. Kala Venkata Rao said power tariff would not be increased in the coming five years. In fact, the possibility of bringing the charges down would be explored while the annual subsidy burden on power being supplied to various sections free of cost hovered around Rs. 8,000 crore. Addressing […]
Punjab budget: Cut in diesel price a cruel joke, say farmer union leaders
Agricultural experts and farmer union leaders on Monday dismissed the state government’s budget as “deceptive”, adding that reducing diesel price by Re one while cutting petrol price by Rs five was a cruel joke on the ‘farming community’. While welcoming the allocation of Rs 3000 crore for waiving of loans of ‘landless farm labourers’ and […]
Power shut down
In view of the proposed maintenance works to be undertaken at the Podanur sub-station on February 20 (Wednesday) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. there will be no power supply in the following areas: Nanjundapuram, Vellalore, Konavaikkalpalayam, Sri Ram Nagar, Indira Nagar, Anbu Nagar, JJ Nagar, Annapuram, Awai Nagar and Easwaran Nagar.
IOC first Indian refiner to sign crude oil supply deal with US
To ensure a steady inflow of crude oil at a time imports from Iran are falling, state-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has become the first domestic company to sign a long-term supply contract with the US. The oil marketing company, in a statement released on Monday, said the annual deal is worth $1.5 billion and […]
AAI mechanism to monitor actual flight time to rationalise block timings
Early arrivals of flights at congested airports may be a wish come true for passengers but has been a headache for air traffic controllers, particularly because of airlines’ practice of declaring a longer block time for a flight and arriving earlier than that. To rationalise the block timings, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) — […]
GoM identifies 97 ONGC, OIL fields for auctioning to private firms
A Group of Ministers on Wednesday approved major game changers in oil and gas exploration and production sector, including asset stripping of state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp and Oil India Ltd. Based on the proposal from the Petroleum Ministry, the GoM — headed by Finance Minister and assisted by Coal, Commerce, Power and Petroleum […]
IOC signs $1.5-bn deal for US crude
In the first-ever deal by an Indian company, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) today said it has signed an annual deal worth $1.5 billion to import 3 million tonnes of crude oil in the fiscal year beginning April 1. This is the first time any Indian refiner has signed an annual contract since the country in […]
In relief to farmers, Madras high court orders status quo on power lines
CHENNAI: In a relief to farmers in the western belt, protesting against land acquisition for installation of high tension power towers on farm lands, the Madras high court on Monday ordered maintenance of status quo till further direction. Justice T Raja passed the interim order on a plea moved by eight farmers from Namakkal district […]
Panel favours older oil hunt rules
Two years after the government shifted to revenue sharing contracts for oil and gas block auctions, a high-level panel has suggested reverting back to the older system of awarding areas in most basins based on the exploration commitment. The six-member panel, headed by Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar, which was formed on the directions of […]
680-tonne column shifted to HPCL refinery from HSL
VISAKHAPATNAM: A gigantic task of transporting a 680 metric tonne crude distillation column from the Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL) to the HPCL refinery at Malkapuram was successfully accomplished on Sunday. The column to be used in the HPCL’s 9 million tonne expansion project was built by L&T Heavy Engineering Division at Hazira in Gujarat and […]
Dip in crude imports from Iran in January
India’s oil imports from Iran fell 45 per cent in January to 270,500 barrels per day oil (bpd), which is below the estimated 300,000 bpd for the month as some cargoes were delayed. The United States introduced sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s oil revenue-dependent economy in November but gave a six-month waiver to eight nations, […]