-PTI NEW DELHI: Finance Ministry today agreed to dole out a record Rs 100,000 crore towards diesel and cooking fuel subsidy in 2012-13 but wants pricing formula to be changed from current year to cut down the outgo. Finance Ministry, which had previously given out cash subsidy of Rs 55,000 crore, agreed to give Rs 40,000-45,000 crore more to cover for unmet revenue losses on fuel sale in the fiscal year ending...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Consumers face fresh power tariff hikes -Utpal Bhaskar and Aman Malik
-Live Mint Government rejects coal price pooling, moves closer to allowing projects assured fuel linkages by CIL to import coal The government rejected a proposal to pool coal prices and instead moved a step closer to allowing power projects that had been awarded through competitive bidding and assured fuel linkages by state-owned miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) to import the fuel and pass on the incremental costs as higher electricity tariffs. Price pooling...
More »The wrong direction
-The Business Standard Budget underestimates food, fertiliser subsidies If the projections in the 2013-14 Budget are to be believed, subsidies on food and fertiliser which, along with petroleum subsidy, account for nearly 95 per cent of total subsidies are unlikely to rise much in the next financial year. This prognosis, reflected in an increase of just Rs 5,000 crore in food subsidy allocation and no change in the fertiliser subsidy, is odd;...
More »An opportunity missed-CP Chandrasekhar
-The Hindu “The purpose of a Budget – and the job of a Finance Minister,” P. Chidambaram declared in his speech, “is to create the economic space and find the resources to achieve the socio economic objectives.” Now that the presentation of and the spate of initial responses to the budget are behind us, it may be appropriate to ask how far the Minister went in accomplishing his self-defined task. Mr. Chidambaram...
More »Hope trumps realism-Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
-The Asian Age Sonia Gandhi’s economic and political ideology may have apparently triumphed over that of Manmohan Singh. The neo-liberal finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram may be conveying an impression that he’s turned socialist with a vengeance by increasing taxes on the rich in the run-up to the 16th general elections. But the truth is that Mr Chidambaram has made certain assumptions about subsidies, inflation and the expected growth of gross domestic product...
More »