Modi delivers on reform by freeing up diesel prices ending UPA 'policy paralysis' | Daily Mail Online
India is finally on the reforms path once again. The Narendra Modi Government has boldly bitten the bullet for the sake of the nation’s future after India got rid of the unpardonable policy paralysis of the previous United Progressive Alliance Government.
On Saturday, the Government under PM Modi kicked-off the much-needed reforms yatra by deregulating the diesel price, besides approving a new gas price policy and ensuring that the benefit of the LPG subsidy in cash directly reaches the consumers.
With that the Modi Government has proved that it will do everything to usher in a higher growth plane.
The good news of reforms came from Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
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Henceforth, like petrol, the price of diesel will be market determined,” Jaitley said after a Cabinet meeting.
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We have decided to reduce prices and in Delhi the price of diesel will go down by Rs 3.37 per litre from Saturday midnight,” said B. Ashok, chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s biggest fuel retailer.
Retail prices of diesel will now reflect international movement in oil prices which are currently down to a four-year low.
This is the first reduction in diesel price in over five years. Diesel rates were last cut on January 29, 2009 when they were reduced by Rs 2 a litre to Rs 30.86.
Diesel prices were last raised by 50 paise on September 1 and cumulatively raised by Rs 11.81 per litre in 19 instalments since January 2013.
The NDA Government also approved a hike in the natural gas price to US$ 5.61 per mmBtu (million British thermal unit) with effect from November 1, but Reliance Industries will continue to get current US$ 4.2 rate till it makes up for shortfall in output from KG-D6 block.
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The Cabinet has modified the Rangarajan formula approved by the previous UPA Government to bring down the increase in rates from US$ 8.4 to US$ 5.61,” Jaitley said.
The new formula will be effective from November 1 and the rates will be revised every six months with the next revision being on April 1.
“This price takes into consideration the provision of a sufficient incentive for oil and gas exploration by the companies and is also not excessively burdensome for the consumers,” Jaitley pointed out.
The new formula excludes some of the international hub prices such as Japan, included in the earlier Rangarajan formula used by the UPA Government to arrive at the higher price of US$ 8.4 which was to be implemented from April 1, but was put on hold by the Election Commission due to the Lok Sabha elections.
The private sector companies which were lobbying for a higher price appeared disappointed after the decision but Oil and Natural Gas Corporation chairman D.K. Sarraf welcomed the hike saying he was “enthused by the increase in gas price”.
For RIL's flagging D1 and D3 gas fields in KG-D6 block — where output should have been 80 mmscmd but is languishing at less than 8 mmscmd — the Cabinet decided the current rate of US$ 4.2 per mmBtu will continue to apply.
Consumers will, however, pay the revised increased price but RIL will get only US$ 4.2 with the difference being deposited in an escrow account.
RIL will get the higher rates if it is legally able to prove that it did not deliberately cut production and output fall was a result of geological reasons as it claims.
Jaitley said that the Cabinet had also cleared the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme for LPG in which cash subsidy will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of consumers.
Earlier the scheme was linked with the Aadhaar numbers.
The Finance Minister said 6.02 crore accounts have been opened so far under the Jan Dhan Yojana, and the new scheme to transfer cash subsidy to the consumers would start from November 10.