Subsidies needs to be further rationalised: Moily

After taking over as Petroleum Minister, Veerappa Moily had promised to take one decision everyday. Moily says he has delivered his promise. For that reason when the newly constituted Cabinet Committee of Investment meets for the first time, it will be considering proposals from the oil sector, reports CNBC-TV18's Nayantara Rai.

This should be music to the ears as this sector has been crippled by policy paralysis since January of 2011. Moily did not go into details of what those proposals could be, but let us not forget that the body had been set up to expedite investment proposals which have an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore.
Speaking only for the second time publicly since taking over as Petroleum Minister, Moily has promised many things. He said that new shale gas policy will be in place in a few weeks. He also has promised to finalise that in a matter of few weeks. Also he made it very clear that there would not be any new round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) until all previous regulatory uncertainties are taken care of and investor confidence is back. Only then will Veerappa Moily actually have a new NELP round.
He has also promised to make India free of oil imports by 2030. The Oil Ministry has also taken a policy decision to carry out exploration activities through the mining lease of an oil and gas block that means through the life of an oil and gas block should be allowed to carry out exploration activities. This has been an industry demand from companies like Cairn India, ONGC and Reliance Industries.
Veerappa Moily, Oil Minister said, "One subject which I would like to disclose today is that we have already cleared the exploration plan of Cairn and ONGC from 175,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 300,000 bpd. Another six years the import will start declining and I have a big plan, we will be preparing a reform agenda, a roadmap to ensure that by 2030 India should be practically free from import and free in energy security."
He also said about the need to further rationalise subsidies after deregulation of petrol.  Moily added, “There is a report given by Vijay Kelkar who has gone into these things, deregulation also, the increase of the price, that is only at proposal stage and our ministry is yet to process and finalise its views and take it to the cabinet. As on today a concrete proposal before Vijay Kelkar and our ministry is yet to take a view on that.”