*Pvt oil majors seek PM's help* Anupama Airy financial express August 30, 2007
*New Delhi, Aug 29 *Top honchos of private oil companies have called for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to scuttle the discriminatory fuel pricing policy adopted by the petroleum ministry that has forced them to suffer "huge losses". For the first time, bosses of the three largest private sector petroleum companies--Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Vikram S Mehta of Shell and Shashi Ruia of the Essar Group--have come together to issue a joint missive to the PM. They have voiced their concerns, asking the government "to ensure that competition was not throttled". The letter is* significant as companies usually represent their grievances through the concerned ministries*. The three corporate czars have blamed the "predatory pricing policy of the PSUs (that) is against competition policy". "It has led to a collapse in the marketshare of private oil companies from 15% in April 2006 to 1% in September 2006," the letter said, adding that private sector refiners have been compelled to export their entire production, resulting in a loss of Re 1 per litre compared to the realisation of a PSU refiner. They have also questioned the economic logic of providing subsidies of Rs 21,000 crore on petrol and diesel and at the same time imposing an indirect excise tax on the two products of nearly Rs 42,000 crores". While RIL and Essar are the two biggest private players in the country's refining and marketing sector, Shell India Ltd is the only multinational oil company retailing fuels in India. The private sector companies recently suffered huge losses, especially on the sale of auto fuels. The letter says PSUs were selling the fuel at below cost price, *which defeats* "*the objective of deregulation to usher in competition to improve efficiency and the quality of services to consumers*". The chiefs say *the government mechanism to compensate public sector marketing firms through a combination of oil bonds and discounts was unfair* . --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
