Buying and running cars and two-wheelers could soon become a costly affair with a Planning Commission working group suggesting a green surcharge of Rs 2 on every litre of petrol, a green cess of 3% of the annual insured value of all private vehicles and a steep urban transport tax to be collected at the time of purchase of private vehicles.  The panel, headed by Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan, has...

-Reuters   India's growth story is still "credible" and the move to open up the economy to global supermarket chains will help growth and control inflation, RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao said on Friday. "It's commendable that government has taken the initiative. Let's hope that it will improve the logistics chain and supply chain management in agriculture," Subbarao said in a speech in Chandigarh. Late Thursday, the government approved 51 percent foreign direct investment in...

-The Hindu   The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday refuted the “specious explanations” on inflation given by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee saying his statement hid the government's failure to check price rise. Reacting to his November 22 suo motu statement in Parliament, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said: “It is nothing but an exercise in deception to conceal the utter failure of the UPA government in checking the relentless price rise.” While referring...

-The Telegraph   Oil companies today announced the first cut in petrol prices since deregulation in June last year, citing global changes but gifting Mamata Banerjee a political victory. The petrol price will go down in Calcutta by Rs 2.31 a litre to Rs 70.84. “We had gained Rs 1.85 per litre, excluding all taxes, since the last price revision because of a fall in global oil rates and a marginal appreciation in rupee...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said rising prices of fuel were a reality Indians needed to deal with as any more subsidies in the oil sector could destabilise the economy. The comment came days after Mamata Banerjee, his biggest ally at the Centre, warned that her Trinamul Congress would quit the ruling UPA if prices of kerosene, diesel and cooking gas were raised. Asked what he thought of the Bengal chief minister’s...