States’ GST revenue shortfall may be lower by up to Rs 40,000 crore this fiscal

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The GST revenue shortfall faced by states is likely to reduce by about Rs 40,000 crore in the current fiscal on improved collections over the past four months, an official said.

The sharp decline in GST collections was estimated to lead to Rs 1.80 lakh crore shortfall in GST revenues of states. This includes Rs 1.10 lakh crore revenue loss on account of GST implementation and Rs 70,000 crore on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The centre had set up a special window to borrow funds and pass on to the states for meeting the Rs 1.10 lakh crore GST revenue loss.

The official said that improved goods and services tax (GST) collections could bring down the total shortfall amount to around Rs 1.40 lakh crore.

We have done some calculations which show that the shortfall could be lower by about Rs 30,000-40,000 crore in the current fiscal, the official told PTI.

The official further said that Rs 1.10 lakh crore would be borrowed through the special window as planned and a higher mop-up would be utilised to compensate for the loss of revenue due to COVID-19.

The centre has already borrowed and released to the states Rs 1 lakh crore under the special window.

The official further said that for the next fiscal beginning April 1, the GST council will decide on the mechanism for compensating states in its upcoming meeting in March.

The revenue loss next fiscal would be much less compared to this fiscal. However, meeting the 14 percent revenue growth would be difficult, the official added.

Under GST law, states were guaranteed to be compensated bi-monthly for any loss of revenue in the first five years of the GST implementation from July 1, 2017. The shortfall is calculated assuming a 14 percent annual growth in GST collections by states over the base year of 2015-16.

GST collections, which directly reflect the state of economic activity, had plummeted to a record low of Rs 32,172 crore in April 2020, after the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Since then, collections started picking up; and the four straight months of October to January recorded over Rs 1 lakh crore mop-up. The revenues in January are at a record high of Rs 1.20 lakh crore.

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Govt may consider Oriental Insurance or United India for privatization

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The government may consider privatising Oriental Insurance or the United India Insurance Co as their financial health has improved after a series of capital infusions, people aware of the development said.

To further strengthen their financial health, the government is expected to infuse Rs 3,000 crore in the public sector general insurance companies during the current quarter.

Both Oriental Insurance and the Chennai-based United India Insurance may be able to generate interest from the private sector because of their improved financials, sources said.

The process of choosing a suitable candidate for privatisation has just started and will take some time to decide, sources said while not ruling out the possibility for listed New India Assurance, where government stake stands at 85.44 per cent.

As per the plan, NITI Aayog will make recommendations to the government for privatisation and the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under the Ministry of Finance will take the proposal to its logical conclusion.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2021-22 had announced a big-ticket privatisation agenda including privatisation of two public sector banks and one general insurance company.

As part of the divestment strategy for the financial sector, the government has decided to go for a mega initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and residual stake sale in IDBI Bank during the financial year beginning April.

The government has budgeted Rs 1.75 lakh crore from stake sale in public sector companies and financial institutions during 2021-22.

Last year, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared a proposal to provide capital support to National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance.

The cabinet had also decided to increase the authorised share capital of National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) to Rs 7,500 crore and that of United India Insurance Company Limited (UIICL) and Oriental Insurance Company Limited (OICL) to Rs 5,000 crore each to give effect to the capital infusion decision.

At the same time, the Cabinet junked the earlier Budget proposal of merging NICL, OICL and UIICL.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Maha: New curbs announced in Pune amid rise in COVID-19 cases

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In view of a spike in COVID-19 cases in Pune, the district administration has decided to enforce certain curbs, including restriction on movement of people from 11 pm to 6 am for non-essential activities, a senior official said on Sunday.

Schools, colleges and private coaching classes will remain closed till February 28, while hotels and restaurants will have to shut their establishments by 11 pm every day, Pune divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao told reporters.

Creation of micro-containment zones, re-setting up of COVID-19 care centres, increased contact-tracing and testing, and stricter implementation of norms for weddings and other social events are some of the steps which will be taken to stem the spread of the viral infection, he said.

The decision to bring back some restrictions was taken in a meeting chaired by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is also the guardian minister of Pune, on Sunday, he said.

On Saturday, the Pune division reported 998 new cases of coronavirus and nine deaths due to the viral infection. The COVID-19 tally in the division stood at 5,14,319 and the death toll at 11,698, as per official figures.

Rao said for the last three months, the situation in the district was under control. But, now in view of the rise in COVID-19 cases, some decisions have been taken.

There will be restrictions on the movement of people for non-essential activities between 11 pm and 6 am from Monday, he said.

“Essential activities like newspaper distribution, milk and vegetable supply, and hospital emergencies have been excluded from the curbs,” he said.

Hotels, bars and restaurants will have to close down by 11 pm from Monday onwards, he said.

“The decision has been taken as a precaution to control the movement of people who are roaming around unnecessarily,” he said.

Rao said as far as the positivity rate is concerned, Pune district is at 12th position in the state.

“The average positivity rate in the district has now reached 10 per cent. Fifteen days ago, it was 4 to 5 per cent and now there is a need to revamp the standard operating procedures in the district,” he said.

As a precautionary measure, schools and colleges in the district will remain closed till February 28.

A review will be done on Friday and according to the situation, next strategy will be decided, Rao said.

Private coachings and classes where physical interaction is done will also remain closed till February 28, he informed.

“However, establishments like study centres where preparations for civil services examinations are conducted will operate with 50 per cent capacity,” the official said.

Rao said there will be some restrictions on weddings and other social and political events.

At a social gathering, a limit of 200 people was allowed, but over a period, as the situation became normal, violations were seen, he said.

“Now, a decision has been taken to implement the cap of 200 people at weddings and social events in letter and spirit,” the official said.

There is no restriction on inter-district movement, but the administration expects people to follow “COVID- appropriate behaviour” while travelling, he said.

Rao said in all the hotspots, micro-containment zones will be created and a decision has also been taken to activate COVID-19 care centres at the tehsil level in rural areas.

He noted that in view of the increase in positivity rate, the COVID-19 testing also needs to be increased.

“Currently, the National Institute of Virology here has stopped the testing as they are occupied with genome sequencing. We are taking the help of other facilities to increase the testing in the district,” he said.

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Serum Institute of India says its prioritising domestic vaccine needs

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker by volume, on Sunday asked for patience from foreign governments awaiting their supply of COVID-19 shots, saying it had been directed to prioritise India’s requirements.

“…I humbly request you to please be patient,” SII’s Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla said in a tweet adding the company “has been directed to prioritise the huge needs of India and along with that balance the needs of the rest of the world.”

“We are trying our best,” Poonawalla said.

Based in the western Indian city of Pune, the company is manufacturing the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, one of the two shots that India is using to initially vaccinate some 300 million people as part of a national inoculation drive.

Many low-and middle-income countries, ranging from Bangladesh to Brazil, are depending on SII’s AstraZeneca vaccine, branded COVISHIELD by the Indian company.

But demand is growing, including from Western countries like Canada, where Poonawalla has promised to deliver the COVISHIELD vaccine next month.

Britain’s drug regulator is also auditing manufacturing processes at SII, potentially paving the way for the COVISHIELD vaccine to be shipped from there to the UK and other countries..

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has come under criticism for the slow take-off of its vaccination drive but health authorities are preparing to expand the number of inoculation substantially in coming weeks.

India has vaccinated around 11 million people since mid-January.

With more than 10.9 million confirmed infections, India has the world’s second-highest number of COVID-19 cases, behind only the United States.

The country is currently reporting around 12,000 new infections on average each day, a fraction of its peak from last September, according to a Reuters analysis.

But federal health authorities on Sunday said they had written to some states that are currently seeing a surge in cases, asking them to improve overall testing, surveillance and monitoring of COVID-19 mutations.

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M-cap of eight of top 10 most-valued firms tumbles over Rs 1.23 lakh crore

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Eight of the top 10 most-valued companies together witnessed an erosion of Rs 1,23,670.47 crore from market valuation last week, in-line with a bearish broader market trend.

During the last week, the BSE benchmark declined 654.54 points or 1.26 per cent.

Only Reliance Industries (RIL) and State Bank of India (SBI) emerged as gainers from the top 10 most-valued companies list.

Tata Consultancy Services was the biggest laggard in the list as its market valuation tanked Rs 44,672.14 crore to Rs 11,52,770.11 crore.

The valuation of HDFC Bank tumbled Rs 23,964.99 crore to reach Rs 8,47,754.65 crore.

The market capitalisation (m-cap) of ICICI Bank sank Rs 16,146.38 crore to Rs 4,31,177.44 crore and that of Hindustan Unilever plunged Rs 14,273.56 crore to Rs 5,12,473.46 crore.

HDFC’s valuation declined Rs 9,408.05 crore to reach Rs 4,92,908.61 crore and that of Infosys dropped Rs 7,735.21 crore to Rs 5,50,100.64 crore.

The market capitalisation of Bajaj Finance went lower by Rs 4,667.04 crore to Rs 3,31,365.79 crore and that of Kotak Mahindra Bank dipped Rs 2,803.1 crore to Rs 3,83,777.06 crore.

In contrast, RIL added Rs 24,914 crore to take its valuation to Rs 13,18,952.34 crore.

The valuation of SBI jumped Rs 5,488.63 crore to reach Rs 3,56,404.36 crore.

In the ranking of top 10 most-valued companies, RIL was leading the chart followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever Limited, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI and Bajaj Finance.

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FPIs invest Rs 24,965 crore in February so far

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Continuing their buying spree, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) invested Rs 24,965 crore in Indian markets in February so far as various organisations predicted high economic growth for the country and the Union Budget boosted investor sentiment.

According to depositories’ data, FPIs pumped in Rs 24,204 crore into equities and Rs 761 crore in the debt segment, taking the total net investment to Rs 24,965 crore during February 1-19.

In the preceding month, FPIs were net investors of Rs 14,649 crore.

“Various organisations, both national as well as international, have predicted a high economic growth for the upcoming year and the year after for India,” said Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO at Groww.

S Ranganathan, head of research of LKP Securities added that FPIs remained positive on Indian markets as IMF predicted India to be the fastest-growing economy in 2021.

“A pro-growth Budget aimed at leveraging the digital revolution is transformational and we expect FPI flows to continue next month as well aided by MSCI rebalancing,” Ranganathan added.

In addition, the earnings season also turned out to be good, said Rusmik Oza, executive vice president, head of fundamental research at Kotak Securities.

For emerging markets, Oza said flows have been muted in emerging markets this month to date.

Only India and Taiwan have received meaningful FPI flows this month to date, he added

Regarding debt segment, Himanshu Srivastava, associate director – manager research, Morningstar India said, FPIs have stayed away from Indian debt markets for a long time now “mainly on concerns around COVID-19, calibrated support by RBI and low-interest rates.”

Going ahead, the focus will be on how soon India gains economic momentum.

“However, the way markets are headed and given high valuations, there is a strong possibility of profit-booking at regular intervals, which could slow down the pace of net flows,” Srivastava said.

Emerging markets like India may continue to receive foreign investments, as long as central banks globally adopt an accommodative stance in order to bring their economies back on track from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, he added.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Marico expects mid-teen volume growth in couple of quarters

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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FMCG company Marico expects to deliver “mid-teen growth” in volume terms in the next couple of quarters helped by “strong revival” in consumer demand as well as sentiments, and to continue “good growth” from the rural markets, said a top company official.

There has been a decent revival in urban growth as well, and the company expects modern trade channels, which were not performing well, to start growing in the next financial year.

Besides, Marico has a revenue target of Rs 500 crore from immunity and healthy foods for 2021-22, a segment in which it has introduced several new products.

“We have seen a strong revival in consumer demand and consumer sentiments in the past couple of quarters. So, we believe that at least in the next couple of quarters, we should definitely deliver mid-teen growth,” Marico Chief Financial Officer Pawan Agrawal told PTI.

The company expects growth to be first driven by rural and then urban, where modern trade channels are improving.

“I think the growth will be driven by rural followed by urban, where it is currently being driven by e-commerce. But, that will improve. We believe the other channels will also participate in the growth,” Agrawal said.

In the third quarter ended December 2020, Marico rural sales grew 24-25 percent while urban sales rose about 10 percent, he said.

Currently, Marico’s 33-34 percent sales come from rural areas. And, excluding its health care brand Saffola, an urban-centric brand under which it mainly sells edible oils, the contribution from rural goes up to 40 percent, he added.

However, Agarwal also added that in the short term, there could be a bit of pressure on margin due to cost increase. He, however, added that it is a matter of 3-4 months and then subsequently, it should go back to its threshold level of operating margin in the range of 19-20 per cent.

“While there are some immediate cost pressures because of which, it may have taken a little bit of price increase, we believe these cost increases are transient and should start seeing a correction in the next 2-3 months,” he said.

The company, which has seen a good revival of demand in its core categories, now also expects consumer demands to come back to pre-COVID-19 levels soon in the discretionary category, and has plans to invest in that.

“Hopefully, in the next couple of quarters, we believe that even the discretionary categories will start growing and back to pre-COVID-19 levels. And, accordingly, we will start investing in this category,” said Agrawal.

Marico would continue its push into the immunity and healthy foods segments, where it has launched several new products and entered into the mid-sized mass categories such as honey, chyawanprash, soya nuggets and recently into noodles.

“I think immunity and healthy foods continue to be our focus,” he said adding that “we believe that these categories have good potential for us to build a sustainable business over the medium term”.

Marico has a target of having Rs 500-crore revenue in both segments during 2021-22.

“We are very much on course to achieve those numbers.

“We should definitely reach about Rs 325-Rs 350 crore in 2020-21. Hopefully, with all the new products and also the base which is oats and masala oats, the kind of growth that we are experiencing in those categories, we believe that we can reach Rs 475-500 crore next year,” said Agrawal.

However, the company would slow on the hygiene segment, which has emerged strong into the FMCG segment after the pandemic.

“Hygiene is a category where we would want to de-prioritise and de-focus as the impact of the pandemic recedes. People have started living in the new normal and there has been an accelerated demand what we have seen in Q1 and Q2, and now its is going down. And, therefore, we will not focus on hygiene,” he added.

Besides, Marico, which is currently getting around 8 per cent of its sales from e-commerce channels, expects this to contribute in double-digits and not to decline as the other channels recover.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

COVID-19: Not close to herd immunity yet, say experts

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The sharp decline in coronavirus cases in India has been dramatic and perplexed many, as it is contrary to the early modelling, which had predicted millions of deaths due to COVID-19.

September 2020 was the worst month during the pandemic, when daily caseload jumped past the 90,000-mark and hovered close to 1 lakh cases for many days, along with scores of deaths. Many believed that the pandemic will spiral out of control and unleash havoc in most urban centres, which are densely populated.

By December last year, aided by the scaled-up testing infrastructure, the decline in Covid-19 cases emerged as a new phenomenon. Theories were floated that the pandemic is beginning to retreat in a country, which was predicted to be badly hit by the virus.

For example, in Delhi, which was termed as the hotbed of coronavirus, especially following the spike in cases post-Diwali, the impact of the virus began to taper off, with the national capital recently recording zero deaths due to COVID after a gap of 10 months.

Delhi was not isolated in experiencing a decline in cases, as a similar trend emerged almost all over the country. Beginning February, India was recording on an average 10,000 cases daily. But something is very peculiar about this decline, which appears to be unsteady, as cases abruptly begin to emerge in many states.

Raman Gangakhedkar, former deputy director of ICMR and an epidemiologist, said: “So far, we are not close to herd immunity (which means 75 percent of the population has been infected by the virus). Sero survey showed that merely 22 per cent people were infected. Therefore, a large part of the population is still vulnerable.”

He added that after all the restrictions are removed, and life rolls back to normal, people will be exposed to the infection and also be vulnerable to the virus.

“People need to adopt Covid appropriate behaviour, as lockdown cannot be imposed forever. We need to adopt a decentralised approach to open schools and colleges,” said Gangakhedkar.

This emerging trend of the pandemic is getting more convoluted, with the seven-day rolling average of daily Covid cases registering a rise for four consecutive days for the first time in nearly three months.

Maharashtra, the worst-hit state by the virus in the country, contributed to a chunk of the cases in the last week, hinting at the re-emergence of the pandemic in the state.

The seven-day average was 11,430 last weekend which rose to 11,825 on February 18. In comparison to the September spike, the rise in cases is negligible. But most importantly, the period when Covid cases nosedived has been replaced by a gradual increase in cases.

November 19 onwards, more than 40,000 cases were registered every day, then a month later these cases were halved. On Thursday, 13,179 fresh cases were reported, which was the highest in more than two weeks.

This week, Maharashtra for the first time reported more than 5,000 cases after a gap of 75 days. Similarly, the cases are beginning to increase in Kerala, Punjab and other states too.

“In Maharashtra and Kerala, I think the people are taking too much comfort and they may have dropped their guard. Though the gradual decline is encouraging (especially in densely populated hotspots, where maybe 50 per cent have got the infection), but it does not mean the pandemic has gone away,” said Rakesh Mishra, Director at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), Hyderabad.

Mishra added that there is a possibility that the correct situation is not being reflected. “Rapid antigen tests are not accurate, they miss up to 50 per cent, and if replaced by RT-PCR, which is more accurate, the accuracy gets increased by 20 per cent. The crowd in hospitals confirm that cases are less and there is a general decrease in positivity over the weeks. However, it does not look like that the pandemic will be over soon,” he added.

The query that emerges is whether there is a possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 emerging in the summer or the monsoon season.

K. Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India, a Delhi-based think-tank, said: “That will depend on three factors: How many susceptible persons are exposing themselves by not following COVID appropriate behaviour; how many persons are vaccinated by then and whether more infectious mutants of the virus, imported or homegrown, have gained opportunities to spread wide and wild.”

Reddy added that he hopes that the country will fare well in these to effectively contain the transmission, though the possibility of a fresh wave remains a threat.

Scientists and doctors have unequivocally emphasised maintaining COVID appropriate behaviour and urged people not to drop their guard against the virus, as the pandemic is far from getting over.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Can ‘Asia’ out -innovate and out-compete the West?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bordering on paranoia, the theory of the rise of ‘Asia’, not merely as a peer competitor but as an entity that would out-compete and supplant the West gained traction and prominence. This theory was coeval with prognostications about the decline of the West- either in relative or absolute terms. Both theories, however, fall flat against reality. The West, while it is and has been beset by massive problems of a political, economic, cultural and social nature,  will remain peerless in some dimensions and domains where Asia can only play catch- up.

In the main, the domain where the West will retain an edge, almost perpetually, is innovation and it is here that Asia suffers from a structural, systemic and more importantly a conceptual deficit. Dating back to the Industrial Revolution and the paradigm shift (or even revolution), this engendered in the conceptual and intellectual domains, innovation has been the hallmark of the West- a theme that allowed it to reach efflorescence in all fields, ranging from the political to the economic.

What, the question is, the wellspring of innovation? What is it predicated upon? And what does it draw from?

While it is difficult to isolate the predicate of innovation, some major themes or aspects that lead to it can be identified: one is conceptual and the other is about the very notion of the person or the individual.  The causality here might flow from the latter to the former. When and once an individual is free from the normative constraints of tradition which might or might not be a live one, and might have actually ossified, human creativity and imagination is unleashed. This creative potential gives birth to new conceptual underpinnings that can lead to new ideas and hence innovation. Innovation then is neither structural nor systemic.

This assertion goes against the gravamen of the idea that systems or structures can foster innovation. It is here that the West has and will retain a massive edge and it is here that Asia suffers. In most parts of Asia, (the same may be said about other non-Western parts of the world), the bureaucratic state, and how it administers itself, its governance mechanisms and how it relates or does not relate to the public good, the very idea and conception of society, with the individual subordinate to social and cultural preferences, the broader prevailing culture, and the incentives these generate conspire together to deter or even kill creativity and hence innovation.

This is not to say or root for hyper-individualism and suggest that the Western idea and conception of society and the individual’s role in it is perfect or ideal. It is merely to imply that the creative spark and innovation can only be released in societies where the individual is free, in relative terms and is not burdened by convention. The historical and contemporary record speaks for itself: what Asian society produced an Einstein, a Newton, and so on? Contemporarily, if Mark Zuckerberg, or Elon Musk or Sunder Pichai of Google were living in Asia, they’d either be working as middle management company men or doing the rounds of bureaucratic corridors in vain attempts to get a hearing from powers that be?

This is not to say Asia has not produced great men(women) of vision, pioneering intellectuals of great worth, or leaders in business, politics and so on. It has but these luminaries, treated as eccentrics by society had to fight lonely battles against great odds and in many cases the recognition of their merit and contributions was posthumous.

Does this mean Asia is condemned to be a laggard in innovation? Will Asians play only catch up?

More or less, the answer is yes. But there is a qualifier here:  the day when the individual is unencumbered and the ideational plus creative spark is met with zeal by society, state and the markets, the spark of innovation might emanate from Asia too. Till then, the name of the game for Asia and the broader non-West will be an emulation of ideas and innovations pioneered in the West. No amount of systemic or structural change will alter this elemental condition and status. ​

—Wajahat Qazi is an independent writer on politics, global security and political economy. Views expressed are personal

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Petrol prices unchanged after rising for past 12 days

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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After an incessant increase in petrol prices to new record high levels for the past 12 days, oil marketing companies (OMC) have kept the prices of the fuel unchanged across metros on Sunday.

In the past 12 days, petrol prices have increased in the range of Rs 3.2 per litre (Kolkata) to Rs 3.63 a litre in Delhi.

On Sunday, price of the fuel in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata was at Rs 90.58, Rs 97.00, Rs 92.59, Rs 91.7 per litre, respectively, unchanged from the previous levels.

In the past few days, petrol and diesel prices increased with steep hikes, pinching the consumers harder, and drawing criticism for the government from several quarters along with the opposition.

The steepest hike in the past several months came on Saturday with OMCs increasing the price of petrol and diesel by 39 paisa and 37 paisa per litre respectively in the national.

On Sunday, diesel prices also were unchanged and in the national capital, it was at Rs 80.97 per litre.

In Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, the fuel was sold at Rs 88.06, Rs 85.98 and Rs 84.56 per litre, respectively, all same as Saturday’s levels.

Across the country the surge in fuel prices off late has been in the range of 35-40 paisa per litre depending on the level of local taxes on the two petroleum products.

Premium petrol has crossed Rs 100 per litre mark in several cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra a few days back.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow