(ET) The Western Railway (WR) has claimed that it has slashed power bills worth Rs 3 crore by exploiting solar power at 75 stations on its network, an official said here on Wednesday. These rooftop solar plants generate a whopping 8.67MW, resulting in the handsome savings during the current financial year, besides accelerating the Indian Railways’ (IR) mission to achieve the goal of ‘Net Zero Carbon Emission Railway’ before 2030, said WR chief spokesperson Sumit Thakur. The solar plants have been installed in 22 stations in Mumbai Division, 34 in Ratlam, eight in Rajkot and six in Vadodara, besides the Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar Divisions. In the…
Author: Aruna Sharma
(ET) Coal India (CIL) posted a 55.1 per cent year-on-year fall in its consolidated net profit for the first quarter this fiscal at Rs 2077.51 crore as its sales dipped close to 27 per cent owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. The world’s largest coal miner’s net profit for the first quarter of the last fiscal was at Rs 4,629.9 crore. The coal behemoth’s sales during the April-June period this year fell 26.8 per cent y-o-y to Rs 17,007 crore against Rs 23,223 crore for the same period last year, the company said in a stock exchange filing. Total income for the period under review stood at…
(ET) It’s just not electricity rates in Rajasthan that are highest in the country. Comparative VAT (Value Added Tax) rates across states in the country show that people in the state cough up the highest VAT on petrol and diesel. People in Rajasthan pay 38 per cent VAT on petrol and 28 per cent on diesel which is highest in the country, while the fuels attract road development cess of Rs 1,500 and Rs 17 per kilo litre, respectively. The resentment of the people is palpable. They said they are paying for the government’s populist policies. Even though the crude oil prices are low, there is no benefit for…
(ET) India’s top explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp is unlikely to buy overseas oil and gas assets at current prices of about $45 a barrel, its finance chief said on Wednesday. Its overseas investment arm ONGC Videsh (OVL) has already seen a decline in profit, as some of its acquisitions, such as Imperial Energy in Russia, were made when global oil prices were above $100 a barrel. “…prices are stuck at $45 ( per barrel) so any acquisition should be made at significantly lower prices only,” Subhash Kumar told an analyst conference. He said OVL is comfortable with oil prices remaining above $45 a barrel,…
(PTI) The Bokaro LPG bottling of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) will be commissioned in December this year, a senior company official said. The Bokaro plant will be the first state of art LPG bottling plant in Jharkhand and will have a capacity of over four million cylinders annually, Chief General Manager (Sales) Vijay Tilak said. He said the Bokaro LPG bottling plant is being built with an estimated project cost of Rs 93.4 crore. It will bottle 42.3 lakh cylinders annually and will serve all the 24 districts of Jharkhand. Tilak told that the Bokaro plant of the BPCL will be the 55th LPG…
(PTI) State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on Tuesday reported 92 per cent slump in its June quarter net profit after oil prices halved and gas rates fell to a decade low. Standalone net profit of Rs 496 crore in April-June was 91.7 per cent lower than Rs 5,980 crore net profit a year back, the company said in a statement. The surprise profit came after the company delayed payment of cess on crude oil it produces. Initially, the company did not pay even royalty in anticipation of relief from the government to deal with a slump in oil prices. It cleared…
(LiveMint) India reported 78,512 new novel coronavirus infections on Monday, slightly fewer than its record set the previous day when it posted the biggest, single-day tally of infections of any country in the pandemic. With 971 new deaths, the cumulative toll reached 64,469. The coronavirus cases in the country mounted to 36,21,246 including 7,81,975 active cases, 27,74,802 cured/discharged/migrated. With 1,93,889 active cases, the coronavirus situation in Maharashtra continues to remain the most affected state followed. Andhra Pradesh has 99,129 active cases while Karnataka reported 88,110 active cases. 8,46,278 samples were tested on August 30 and over 4.23 crores samples have been tested so…
(FE) Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet top executives of banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) on September 3 to review the implementation of the resolution framework for stress in bank loans, caused by the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting comes ahead of the expected announcement of the KV Kamath-led panel’s recommendations on eligibility parameters for the restructuring of loans to soften the blow to both borrowers and the lenders in the wake of the pandemic. “The review will focus on enabling businesses and households to avail of the revival framework on the basis of viability, necessary steps like finalising…
(ET) The Indian Railways has taken a number of initiatives to boost freight operations amid challenges due to COVID-19. “On mission mode, Indian Railways has taken a number of initiatives to boost freight operations in spite of COVID 19 related challenges. Because of these initiatives, the freight loading in the month of August 2020 (till 27 August 2020) is 4.3 per cent higher, compared to last year for the same month,” read a press statement. It said, in the month of August 2020 (till 27 August 2020) the total freight loading was 81.33 million tonnes which is higher than last year for the same month…
(BS) Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL), a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation, is planning to invest about Rs 1,850 crore in BS VI auto fuels to cater the demand in the southern parts of the country. In November 2019, the company completed the diesel hydro-treating (DHDT) BS VI revamp project (from 1.8 to 2.4 MMTPA), a new FCC gasoline de-sulphurisation unit of 0.6 MMTPA capacity. Pre-commissioning activities have already commenced. Mechanical completion of the unit is expected by second quarter of 2020 21. Commissioning is expected by Q3 of 2020 21, according to company’s annual report. A new sulphur recovery block is…