TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017 (PAGE 14) DAILY EXCELSIOR,...

NEW DELHI, Jan 16:

The Government today ruledout reverting to the system of sub-sidising auto fuel but said it mayresort to cut in excise duties if ratehike "pinches hard" even as therehas been Rs 5.21 per litre hike inpetrol price and Rs 4.45 in dieselrates since December.

"There will be no subsidyregime in petrol and diesel," OilMinister Dharmendra Pradhansaid. "Petrol price was deregulatedin June 2010 and diesel in October2014 and the same will continue."

The surge in international oilprices has led to petrol pricesbeing hiked for the fourth timesince December and thrice incase of diesel. Petrol price washiked by 42 paisa and diesel byRs 1.03 a litre (excluding locallevies), effective last midnight.

Petrol in Delhi now costs Rs71.14 a litre as against Rs 65.93in end November. Similarly,diesel rates have gone up fromRs 54.57 a litre to Rs 59.02.

"There will be no going backto subsidisation. Subsidies areanti-poor. Subsidy should begiven only to needy persons andnot to people who can afford," hesaid, indicating that auto fuels arebeing mostly consumed by peoplewho can afford them.

Asked if the Government willlook at cutting excise duty, he saidno developed country had passedon the entire slump in global oilprices that began in second half of2014 to take crude to more than adecade low, to consumers.

Even oil producing nationslike Saudi Arabia and UAE usedit as an opportunity to cut subsi-dies, he said, adding that Indiaraised excise duty to take awaypart of the gain arising fromslump in global oil prices then.

"We passed on 50 per cent ofthe benefit of oil prices slump toconsumers and the rest 50 percent we recouped by way ofraising excise duty. This addi-tional revenue was used to fundinfrastructure and social proj-ects," he said.

When oil prices slumped in

the second half of 2014 and early2015, the Government hikedexcise duty on petrol and dieselnine times to mop up additionalrevenues that helped it meet itsrevenue and fiscal deficit targets.In all, it raised excise duty onpetrol by Rs 11.77 a litre and thaton diesel by Rs 13.47.

But global oil prices havebeen moving up since oil cartelOPEC last month agreed to cutoutput for the first time in eightyears.

India, which depends onimports to meet 80 per cent ofits oil needs, will have to spendRs 9,126 crore (USD 1.36 bil-lion) more every year for onedollar per barrel increase incrude oil. Besides, the risingcrude oil trajectory impactsinflation and growth.

India spent USD 63.96 bil-lion on crude oil import in 2015-16, about half of USD 112.7 bil-lion outgo in the previous fiscaland USD 143 billion in 2013-14. For the current fiscal, theimport bill has been pegged atUSD 66 billion at an averageimport price of USD 48 per bar-rel.(PTI)

NEW DELHI, Jan 16:

Unhappy over BSF's interimreport on a jawan's allegationabout poor quality food beingserved to security personnel, theforce has been given two moredays by the Union Home Ministryto submit a detailed factual reporton the controversy.

BSF Director General K KSharma met Union HomeSecretary Rajiv Mehrishi todayand discussed with him variousissues concerning the force.

"A few days ago, the BSF hasgiven its interim report. Theysought two more days to give afinal report on the complaint ofpoor quality food," a senior HomeMinistry official said.

Official sources said theHome Ministry seems to beunhappy with the interim reportgiven by the BSF on its jawanTej Bahadur Yadav's complaintthat poor quality food was beingserved to the jawans postedalong the border with Pakistan.

BSF has maintained that therewas no shortage of rations at any

post and security personneldeployed along the border hadnever complained about food.

They said the HomeMinistry is looking at the issueof overall welfare policy forconstabulary and how toimprove their conditions as wellas quality of food and directedthe BSF to give a detailed reportalong with suggestions to

improve conditions of jawans.At the same time, the

Ministry is of the opinion thatno indiscipline would be tolerat-ed among the jawans and any-one having complaint mustutilise the existing grievanceredressal mechanism rather thangoing public or using socialmedia to highlight the problems.(PTI)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017 (PAGE 14) DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU

SINCERE THANKSto

Sh. Nazir Ahmed Gurezi, Hon'ble Deputy Speaker,Hon'ble Ministers : Choudhary Zulfiqar Ali, and Sh.Chering Dorjay, Hon'ble MLAs : Sh. Nawang RigzinJohra, Sh. Javed Ahmed Rana, Sh. Ajaz Ahmed Khan,Sh. Asgar Karbalai, Sh. Mumtaz Ahmed Khan,Choudhary Mohd Akram, Sh. Syed Mohammad BaqirRizvi, Sh. Qammer Hussain Choudhary, Sh. RajaManzoor Ali, Sh. Deldan Namgail, Sh. Jeevan Lal, Sh.Dina Nath, Dr. Krishan Lal, Sh. Kuldeep Raj and Sh.Neelam Langeh.

FOR TAKING UP THE ISSUE OF RESERVATION IN PROMOTIONS

WTH

MS. MEHBOOBA MUFTI, HON'BLE CHIEF MINISTER

Dr. Zabeer Ahmed Dr. Sanjay BhasinGeneral Secretary President

JAMMU KASHMIR RESERVECATEGORIES EMPOWERMENT

ALLIANCE (JKRCEA)

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Jawan’s video: BSF gets two more days to submit reportNo returning to subsidies on petrol, diesel: Govt