Monday, January 30, 2012

Expected Excise Duty hike on diesel cars soon

Recent series of hikes on the petrol price has augmented the gap between the Petrol & Diesel prices by around Rs.25. The impact as know, automobile industry witnessed rocketing sales of diesel passenger cars and plummeting sales of petrol cars. This came as a wallop to the auto companies.

The finance ministry has stepped in and is planning to exploit the situation of rocketing diesel car sales by imposing excess excise duty on the passenger diesel cars. The expected hike may vary from Rs.80000 to Rs.150000. This is mostly to be sealed off in the coming 2012 budget session. Thus inflated govt. revenues are to be passed on to petroleum companies to cover their losses.

(For someone(like me) who doesn't know what Excise Duty is: An excise or excise tax (sometimes called an excise duty) is a type of tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country). It is a tax on the production or sale of a good. This tax is now known as the Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT).)

This coup is trying to be portrayed as a measure to balance in the losses incurred by petroleum companies on the subsidized sales of diesel. Recently around a year back petrol became de-subsidized and thus witnessed the series of hikes on petrol cost. As the petroleum companies complain they are incurring a loss of around Rs.12 on every litre of diesel sold due to the subsidy. Be it airlines companies crisis or be it petroleum companies losses, all credit to the world crude oil prices. Its high time for Petroleum Ministry, Aviation Ministry along Finance Ministry to act on situation wisely to curb the issue.

So, it all boils down to, the price difference between a petrol car and diesel car may increase from what it is now after 2012 budget.

Source: http://news.in.msn.com/business/equitymaster/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5793545

"So far, people using swanky and expensive SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicle) for pleasure driving and those who are using buses or trucks for essential services, both are getting equal subsidy on diesel. Passenger cars are the single largest consumers of diesel, as much as 15% of the total diesel consumption in India. To exploit the existing subsidy on diesel, more consumers are turning towards diesel passenger cars. Widening gap between diesel and petrol prices is only fueling this move. At present, diesel cars contribute nearly 40% of the total car sales, as compared to less than 20% a few years back.

Definitely, diesel passenger cars do not deserve any fuel subsidy, as the latter hardly goes to the needy section of the society. Therefore, the government is mulling over various steps to do away with the subsidy enjoyed by diesel car owners. One proposal under consideration is not to sell diesel to passenger car owners at subsidized rates. However, this idea is difficult to implement. In addition, existence of dual pricing in the market would lead to black marketing as well. So what is the way out?

Now, the government is pondering over another proposal which is hiking excise duty on diesel passenger cars. The idea is to generate more revenues from the production of diesel cars which can be passed on to the oil marketing companies. These companies are taking serious hits on their profits on account of high crude oil prices.

In the meanwhile, auto companies are waiting to get a clear picture before deciding future investment to increase their diesel car production. It would be good if the government comes out with a clear policy on this issue soon. However, what we believe is the only way to do away with all this kind of discrepancies such as diesel subsidy for everyone is decontrolling of prices of petroleum products. Time has come that the government shows a strong will in this regard. Decontrolling of the petroleum product prices and rationalization of taxes seem to be the only way to go. Small stitches in the existing policy may not help the whole problem of subsidy issue. And the government would continue to be laden with huge fiscal deficit on account of irrational subsidies."

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Pure vegetarian restaurants - Hyderabad

I have been living in Hyderabad for the past 7 years. Being a vegetarian i find very limited pure veg. restaurants in Hyderabad. Here i try to sum up some of the pure veg. restaurants in Hyderabad i have visited and know through the time.

Ms Balle Balle
Level 6, 4th floor, MPM Mall, Above Big Bazaar
Abids, Hyderabad
Phone: 040-64580808, 9966138575

Bhimas Chithram
Plot No.1367, Road No.45,
Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad
Phone: 040-23606400, 9491012744

Hotel Swathi
Kachiguda X Roads, Kachiguda, Hyderabad

Hotel Shanbaagh
Near Nagarjuna Circle, Besides Himalaya Books,
Punjagutta, Hyderabad

Little Italy
Near Film Nagar, Jubilee Hills,(Behind volkswagen show room)
Hyderabad

Chutneys
KPHB (Above Kalyana Kanchi Show room, JNTU X Roads)
Nagarjuna Circle
Jubilee Hills (Falls to the left while you come from Jubilee Check Post)
Himayath Nagar (Opposite TTD Temple)

Naivedhyam
Ground floor, Building next to Lal Bunglow,
Ameerpet, Hyderabad
(Falls to the left while you come from Begumpet via Green park signal)

Ohris Jiva
Somajiguda, Hyderabad.
(Comes to the left while you come from khairathabad X roads)

Lotus Multi-cuisine Pure Vegetarian Restaurant
Beside Food World, Karkhana Road
Karkhana, Secunderabad
Pin: 500026
Phone: 9246152792, 040-64516363


Veggies 365
1st Floor, Oyster Uptown Building,
Near Reebok Showroom, Madhapur, Hyderabad.
Phone: 7799842220, 7799842221 
 
I will be updating the list as the time flies. Keep watching the space.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Yet another unexpected accident

After my last minor accident, i didn't face any fender bender in past 2 -3 years. But, last monday was the day for another accident.

I WAS AFRAID OF DOGS. But now, I HATE DOGS. Its a bright monday after Sankranthi festival. Expecting relative less traffic as it was a long weekend, i started to office expecting another routine day. I use my loyal bike for my daily commute to office. From my home, i have to pass by a construction site and some bushes to get on to the main road which takes me to jntu x roads. I was in 30-40kmph and suddenly a stray dog appeared from no where. The dog just ran out of the bushes crossing the road. It happened in a flash. I hit the dog. Though i applied both the breaks, i couldn't control the sudden impact to the front tyre and fell down to the right side. Probably due to the speed i was in, i fell down and the impact has thrown me away from the bike and we both were dragged to 5-6 feet. Before i realize what happened, my helmet came off and fell another 2-3 feet away. Luckily as that was a sub-lane, no other vehicles were behind me, otherwise, i would have certainly hit by them.

I generally wear helmet and gloves on my daily commute to office also. I have this one very good habit. I never miss to wear helmet atleast. It saved me this time. The impact left my helmet with a major crack and my gloves took the scratches. My jacket was torn on the right side and my cloths, shoes were shabby with dust. I tried to realize what has happened and then i had blood bleeding from my nose. Though the bleeding lasted for not more than 30 seconds, i thought, i'm gone. I didn't have any major physical injury except some scartches. For a accident of this intensity, i thank god for no fracture.

The bike laid there waiting for someone to get it up. At the first glance of the bike, i knew the damage was going to huge. I put it on stand for visual check up. The front head light visor, foot rest, mudgaurd, front break lever, right indicator was completely broken. Mudgaurd had a bend due to the drag. I tried to start the bike but it didn't. I peeked to see if there is any damage to the spark plug or engine bay. Then i noticed petrol leak. I turned off the petrol supply and walked my bike to my flat cellar.

My mistake was the speed i was driving in that sublane. When i was in my B.Tech at Kadapa, i heard of lot number of accidents due to these stray dogs. And now i faced one. I say to myself, "Reduce your speed". Anyways, after the bike repair, my wallet is lighter by 2500 bucks.