First Petro Price Hike in 2012 Likely Today

It hasn't been confirmed so far, but the Oil companies are likely to revise rates with a Rs. 2.10 - 2.13 per litre hike in petrol price saying that it is needed because of a weakening rupee. State-owned oil companies, as per practice, revise rates of petrol on 1st and 16th of every month based on the average imported price and exchange rate during the fortnight.

As per this schedule, new rates were to be announced on Saturday if they were take effect from yesterday, but top officials at oil companies said the revision was "99 per cent unlikely" yesterday. The oil companies, they said, will decide on revising rates only on Monday (Today). The rate change may, however, need a political clearance as Assembly elections in five crucial states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, have been announced.

According to official souces, international price of gasoline (against which domestic petrol prices are benchmarked) are more or less at the same level (as at the time of last revision), the rupee has depreciated to about Rs. 53 to a US dollar. This warrants an increase of Rs. 1.78 per litre and after adding local sales tax or VAT, the desired hike in petrol price in Delhi is Rs. 2.10 - 2.13 a litre. Incidentally, Oil firms had, at the last review on December 15/16, decided not to burden the consumers with about Re 1 per litre hike in petrol price needed at that time, as they felt Reserve Bank's intervention may help arrest fall in rupee's value.
 

Modi Is Not Our PM: Owaisi

MIM is a recognized state political party based in the Indian state of Telangana, with its head office in the old city of Hyderabad, which has its roots in the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen founded in 1927. Unlike most of the regional and national level parties, MIM party leaders ‘fight’ only for the well-being of Muslims, whereas no other party has such communal feelings. In their each and every speech, MIM leaders speak only about Muslims. If these leaders are here to fight for Muslims, then why there are no development works are happening in old city area for decades. Akbaruddin Owaisi faced criticism for making hate remarks on Narendra Modi and Hindus. Recently, his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi made some notorious annotations. In a one-on-one debate between BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi on the topic of demonetization in a popular Hindi channel, the former left no stone unturned in exposing the latter’s communal designs. Owaisi claimed how most of the Muslim community still remains unbanked and that demonetization has caused severe inconvenience to Muslims. He even went on to say that ATM’s in Muslim-dominated areas weren’t fed enough money. He indirectly alleged that the Modi government hadn’t done anything for Muslims. Even after being pressurized Owaisi didn’t call Narendra Modi as his Prime Minister. He went on said, “Your Prime Minister…” On the other hand, Sambit spoke wisely and called Owaisi a leader of small stature because he talked only of Muslims. He said that no area was Muslim or Hindu and that all areas belonged to India. Owaisi was constantly quoting an RBI report, to which Sambit challenged him to show where the RBI had used the word ‘Muslim’. Sambit even said that if a Muslim leader speaks of Muslims it’s not an issue, but the moment a VHP leader speaks of Hindus people go crazy accusing them of imposing the Hindutva ideology. The most amazing of his counters was to Owaisi’s claims of Muslims not having been brought into the banking system. Sambit said that when banks or ATMs are to be opened in Muslim areas leaders like Owaisi shout that banking is un-Islamic and that Muslims should refrain from it! This video of debate between Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi is going viral in social media.