Samyukt Kisan Morcha calls for 'Bharat Bandh' on Sep 25
New Delhi, Aug 27: The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, spearheading the anti-farm laws protests, on Friday called for a 'Bharat Bandh' on September 25.
The SKM said the move is aimed at further strengthening and expanding the farmers' agitation which completed nine months on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference at Delhi's Singhu border, Ashish Mittal from SKM said, "We are calling for a 'Bharat bandh' on September 25. This is happening after a similar 'bandh' was organised on the same date last year, and we hope that it would be more successful than the one last year which was held amid the COVID-19 pandemic."
Mittal, who was also the convener of the all-India convention by farmers that concluded on Friday, said the two-day event was a success, and saw the participation of representatives from 22 states, of not just 300 farm unions but also members of organisations that work for the welfare of women, labourers, tribals as well as youth and students.
During the convention, discussions and deliberations took place on the farmers' struggle that has been going on for the last nine months, and it focused on making their agitation against the farm laws a pan-India movement, he said.
"During this convention we understood how the government has been attacking the farming community with the pro-corporate laws, and how by capturing the market, farmers' produce will be bought at lower prices.
"The government which is on the verge of bankruptcy, is trying to recover the money from the farmers, labourers and the common man by increasing the fuel prices and prices of cooking gas. All these anti-public steps are to benefit the corporate. It is important to strengthen our agitation against all of these factors," Mittal said.
He added that their demands for repeal of the three farm laws, legal guarantee for MSP of all crops, repeal of Electricity Bill, 2021, and no prosecution of farmers under the 'Commission of AQ Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas Bill 2021' were also reiterated during the convention.
Mittal also elaborated on the farmers' upcoming rally in Uttar Pradesh scheduled to take place in Muzaffarnagar on September 5, saying it is expected to witness the participation by lakhs of people.
"A call for strengthening this movement will be made from there. The movement will be taken to every zila there, and we have appealed to people to participate in large numbers.
"We have also appealed to farmer and labour organisations at the zila and lower levels to come together and discuss the impact of these laws and create a collective agitation across the country," he said.
On Thursday, the farmers' protest against the three contentious laws completed nine months since they first arrived at the Delhi borders. The farmers have been demanding the repeal of the laws which they are afraid will do away with the MSP system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.
Over 10 rounds of talks with the government that has been projecting the laws as major agricultural reforms have failed to break the deadlock between the two parties.
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Rs 30,000 cr loss a month: Oil companies bleed as fuel prices on hold amid global energy spike
New Delhi (PTI): About Rs 700-1,000 crore loss per day. Rs 30,000 crore every month. India's state oil companies are quietly absorbing a massive financial hit to keep petrol, diesel and LPG prices unchanged even as global energy markets face a turmoil that is bigger than all previous crises combined.
While countries from Japan to United Kingdom have raised petrol and diesel prices by up to 30 per cent since the start of the West Asia conflict, fuel prices in India continue at two-year-old levels.
The war disrupted India's import of 40 per cent of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel), 90 per cent cooking gas LPG and 65 per cent natural gas (used to generate electricity, make fertilizer, turned into CNG and piped to household kitchens for cooking), but state-owned oil companies have maintained uninterrupted fuel supplies with no rationing or shortage at any point in the last 10 weeks.
But this has come at a cost - Rs 30,000 crore under-recovery or loss every month for the three oil marketing companies - Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The under-recoveries - the gap between input costs and realised retail prices - rose sharply in March/April before tapering a bit. Daily under-recoveries during April were estimated at about Rs 18 per litre on petrol and Rs 25 per litre on diesel, translating into average losses of Rs 700-1,000 crore a day for OMCs, they said.
At a news briefing on developments in West Asia, Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said prices in the international markets, on which India relies to meet 88 per cent of its oil needs, have been volatile and supplies impacted.
Crude oil prices which were around USD 70 per barrel two months ago, are now at USD 120, she said. "It has been government's endeavour to keep prices stable so far and that there is no price increase for consumers," she said. "This has hit finances of OMCs... monthly under-recoveries are of the order of Rs 30,000 crore."
She, however, refused to say if retail petrol and diesel prices will continue to hold.
"As I said, the endeavour so far has been to see that there is no price increase," she said.
The three oil marketing companies (OMCs) have worked overtime to keep the supply lines running even when demand spiked due to panic buying.
The government intervention included excise duty reductions and absorption of part of the fuel cost burden. The special additional excise duty on petrol was cut to Rs 3 per litre from Rs 13, while excise duty on diesel was reduced to zero from Rs 10 per litre.
The under-recoveries would have swelled to nearly Rs 62,500 crore had the government not cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 per litre each.
The government, Sharma said, has taken a hit of Rs 14,000 crore a month in cutting the excise duty.
The Centre's effective absorption at peak crude prices was estimated at around Rs 24 per litre for petrol and Rs 30 per litre for diesel.
The February 28 strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran triggered a sharp escalation in West Asia tensions. Energy prices surged as the conflict widened and shipping risks intensified in the Strait of Hormuz - the shipping lane through which India and other countries imported crude oil, LPG and natural gas from Gulf countries. Tanker movement was disrupted.
The companies also faced additional costs from emergency crude sourcing, higher freight charges due to vessel diversions, elevated marine insurance premiums and refinery optimisation expenses. Despite these pressures, fuel and LPG supplies remained uninterrupted across the country.
The surge in crude prices and the decision to shield consumers from higher retail prices placed significant strain on OMC balance sheets and refining margins, sources said.
They added that the measures reflected a policy decision to prioritise consumer stability and economic continuity during a global energy shock.
Sources warned that a prolonged period of elevated crude prices could lead to higher working capital borrowings and force some recalibration of capital expenditure plans. However, investments linked to refining expansion, energy security infrastructure, ethanol blending, biofuels and transition fuels would continue with government backing, they said.
India's approach contrasted with measures adopted by several other economies, where fuel prices rose sharply after the conflict-driven energy shock.
Petrol prices increased by about 34 per cent in Spain, 30 per cent in Japan, Italy and Israel, 27 per cent in Germany and 22 per cent in the United Kingdom, according to estimates. Several countries also introduced rationing, conservation advisories, emergency relief packages or fuel caps.
In India, petrol prices remained Rs 94.77 per litre and diesel at Rs 87.67, with no rationing, mobility restrictions or supply disruptions, they added.
Sharma said the revenues that OMCs earn are used to buy crude oil, build infrastructure to process it into fuel and create channels that will take the fuel to consumers.
Their capex spending is all dependent on the revenues they earn, she added.
