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NEW DELHI: India is likely to take the sting out of a controversial law seeking to crack down on tax avoidance by exempting small firms and individuals and stretching out its implementation over several months, in an attempt to calm jittery foreign and domestic investors. The finance ministry is...
By Nantoo Banerjee A matter-of-fact statement made recently by the chief economic advisor to the union finance ministry, Kaushik Basu, before a learned audience in Washington DC has stirred up a real hornets’ nest among politicians and intelligentsia to the embarrassment of the Congress party leading the ruling United...
By Garga Chatterjee India was supposed to be a democratic federal union. The daily debasing of that compact goes largely unnoticed among our chattering classes and policy makers. The states in India have long been reduced to impoverished alms-seekers – mass leaders from its great provinces prostrating daily in...
NEW DELHI: With two months left for the installation of the new President, the Congress has begun consultations with United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies in the hope of achieving agreement on a common name. Defence Minister A.K. Antony will be flying down to Chennai shortly to meet Dravida Munnetra...
NEW DELHI: Chinese equity in the new owner of Arrow Energy, that operates five coal bed methane (CBM) blocks in India, has prompted the oil ministry to hold back approval for the company’s request to amend its CBM contracts to reflect the change in ownership, officials said. Arrow, an...
NEW DELHI: Liquified natural gas (LNG) handling terminals in the country, including the proposed ones, will have to offer a little less than a third of their total capacity for third-party use at fair and competitive terms, according to the norms being worked out by the oil ministry. The...
NEW DELHI: The Centre has assured Trinamool Congress that deregulation of diesel prices would not be carried out soon, advertising its lack of resolve for tough reform measures. A Trinamool Congress leader told ET that minister of state in the PMO V Narayansamy has conveyed to the party that...
In the current fiscal year, private sector oil and gas companies witnessed significant challenges largely driven by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) audits and a large number of disputes between the contractors and the Government. In the early 90s, when India faced an acute shortage of oil and...
NEW DELHI: India is mulling inviting Qatar to invest in the country’s energy sector, and may offer equity stake to the Gulf nation in NTPC’s gas-based project in Kerala, in lieu of assured fuel supply for the plant. Power Ministry which is battling with acute gas shortage at its...
HYDERABAD: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) is set to revive its plan to set up an integrated mega refinery near Visakhapatnam. The company has approached the Andhra Pradesh government for allotment of about 1,500 acres at Achyutapuram near Vizag for this. The land the state-owned company is keen on...
CHANDIGARH: About 50 retail outlets of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) across Punjab have run out of their supply of diesel. The shortage of diesel supply has hit fuel dealers at a time when the demand for the fuel peaks in the agricultural sector with the harvesting season on...
MANGALORE/NEWDELHI: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) is losing about Rs 20 crore daily due to the complete shutdown of its 300,000-barrels-a-day refinery. The shutdown was caused by acute water shortage. The shutdown will have a direct impact on fuel supplies particularly diesel, industry observers said. Most of the...
NEW DELHI: Looking to bring in more transparency, the Power Ministry is expected to introduce competitive bidding guidelines for short-term procurement of electricity next month. The guidelines, prepared after consultations with stakeholders, would be applicable for power being procured for a period of less than one year. “We are...
NEW DELHI: India is mulling inviting Qatar to invest in the country’s energy sector, and may offer equity stake to the Gulf nation in NTPC’s gas-based project in Kerala for assured fuel supply for the plant. Power ministry which is battling with acute gas shortage at its generating stations...
NEW DELHI: National Green Tribunal has sought a reply from the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) on a plea challenging the environmental clearance granted to Kudgi Super Thermal Power Project Stage-I (2,400 MW) in Karnataka. A bench headed tribunal’s acting chairperson AS Naidu sought MoEF’s response on the...
KOLKATA: India’s largest power sector company NTPC’s denial to sign the newly formulated fuel supply agreement (FSA) for new power plants is likely to jeopardise the government mandated plan to secure committed coal supply to power producers. NTPC accounts for more than 35% of the quantity that CIL would...
NEW DELHI: The government has invoked special powers under the Electricity Act and directed the central and state regulators to implement a long-pending reform to allow industrial consumers to buy cheaper power from the open market. The move will help 15,000 large consumers particularly the sick textile, cement and...
NEW DELHI: Ahead of Saturday’s ministerial panel meeting to examine the attorney general’s opinion on the legality of a government decision allowing Reliance Power to divert surplus coal from its Sasan captive mines, the private developer has independently secured a favourable opinion from the country’s top legal brains, including...