Anil seeks probe into RIL's 'huge scandal' in gas investments

Some More Indications of how RIL has purchased Petroleum Ministry. This time from an insider like Anil Ambani.

30 Jul, 2009 1627hrs IST PTI

NEW DELHI: Questioning clearance by junior oil ministry officials of the near four-fold hike in costs to Rs 45,000 crore for gas fields by Mukesh Ambani-led RIL, Anil Ambani on Thursday demanded a probe into the "huge scandal."

"I am deeply concerned that RIL's capital expenditure of nearly Rs 45,000 crore on KG-D6 fields as confirmed in Parliament by the petroleum minister and which is nearly 33% of India's total defence budget was cleared by a management committee..." he said in an e-mailed interview.

"The committee comprised of one junior level official each from the petroleum ministry and director general of Hydrocarbon and two representatives of the contractor (RIL)... talk about conflict of interest," he said, adding that any expenditure above Rs 150 crore by any arm of government goes to the Cabinet committee of economic affairs for approval.

Given the incredibly high stakes involved, the comptroller and auditor General and central vigilance commission should examine relevant facts and find out if capex was overstated, Anil said, pointing that budgeted expenditure of RIL for peak production of 40 mmscmd was only Rs 12,000 crore in 2004.

Anil alleged that petroleum ministry, particularly after the changes in 2006 (when Murli Deora took over as minister), was colluding with RIL in its quest to make "super-normal profits of Rs 50,000 crore" at the cost of power and fertiliser sectors.

Anil hoped that public accountability bodies like CAG and CVC will examine the facts as he feared that ultimately the users of gas would end up paying for RIL's capital expenditure.

Appropriate action should be taken "if indeed they (CAG/CVC) find that the capex has been over-stated, and as a result huge losses caused to the public exchequer and all end-users of the gas produced from KG-D6," he said.

He said the surge in capex has even surprised independent observers and the government could have lost over Rs 30,000 crore by this "gold-plating of costs".

On his dispute over gas supply with Reliance Industries, Anil said: "It is a huge scandal that at the price of USD 4.20, RIL wants to make super normal profits of over Rs 50,000 crore (10-billion dollar) - which will ultimately be paid for by hundreds of millions of end-consumers."

Anil, who wants gas for his group firm RNRL at USD 2.34 per mmBtu as per an MoU with RIL, said further that "RIL has a short term monopoly, and to perpetuate this monopoly, and earn disproportionate profits at the cost of the people, RIL is spreading misinformation in the public domain to ensure a higher price for its gas."

As per the Production Sharing Contract, RIL is entitled to "first recover its entire capital expenditure from the revenues from sale of gas, before even the government gets any meaningful share."

Anil also raised questions over prohibitively high transportation cots for KG-D6 gas, while suggesting a probe by power and gas sector regulators like PNGRB, CERC and SERC.

He said that pipeline networks in the country were operating on a cost-plus basis, and therefore, end-users from power and fertiliser sectors were, in effect, paying for the networks too.

"To my mind, there is a strong case to revisit the issue of transportation costs for KG-D6 gas, probably the highest in the world, by the PNGRB, the pipeline regulator. Presently, these are pegged at a prohibitive USD 1.25, or 30 per cent of the base gas price!

"Further, with new tax breaks recently announced, the entire cost of setting up the gas pipeline network has been allowed to be written off in the very first year -- a special and unique benefit not given to any other capital intensive sector. It is only fair that the benefits of these tax breaks be passed on, and gas transportation costs be brought down to near zero."

He expressed the "hope that the regulators in gas and power sectors such as PNGRB, CERC and SERC, would examine this aspect more carefully."

At RNRL's AGM earlier this week, Anil also pointed out that the gas transportation company was no longer owned by RIL and it had been sold to the promoters of RIL for a "princely sum of Rs 5 lakhs, and turned into a privately held company."

http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/4838079.cms

Whistleblower in Oil Sector Seeks Court Directive

Whistleblower Seeks Court Protection.

Dear Members,
Your kind attention is invited to the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, 2nd May 2009, Page 4 Article titled "Whistle Blower seeks protection".

I hereby call upon the members and all concerned citizens to convey their total support to the crusader against corruption, RTI activist and Whistle Blower.

It may kindly be appreciated that by showing solidarity towards the officer who is fighting for us, we can protect us from the arbitrary, illegal and high-handed acts of the Oil PSU management / corrupt Govt of India officers.

I earnestly seek your support.
With kind regards,--
Babubhai Vaghela
(Administrator - Google Group - Right to Information Act 2005)

Ashok Singh Whistle Blower

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Brochures & Catalogs Magazines & Newspape Fiction oil sector PSU

Amar Singh jams spanner into RIL's proposal to hive off its petrol pumps to PSU Oil OMCs

Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh jams spanner into RIL's proposal to hive off its petrol pumps to PSU OMCs

http://www.indianpetro.com/
April 5: 8Having taken a tough decision to exit the the auto fuel retail business, Mukesh Ambani has been trying to sell or lease Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) idle petrol pumps across the country to state-owned oil marketing companies. However, the PSUs do not seem to be interested in taking the bait. Ambani's ambitions now appear to have run into political opposition in the form of Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh, who is known to be very close to the senior Ambani's estranged brother Anil Ambani. Singh recently chose to express his objections to RIL's attempts to sell or lease its "non operational and defunct" petrol pumps to IOC and other India PSU companies in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 8In his letter to the PM, Singh expressed "shock" at the media reports on the proposed sale or lease, slamming RIL for its "blatant attempt to offload its stranded assets to government entities at the cost of national wealth." Singh has even gone one step further in accusing officials of IOC and petroleum ministry of conniving together to favour RIL for personal gains and has demanded a CBI enquiry to identify the concerned officials involved in the whole process. The Samajwadi Party MP also pointed out that since IOC and its subsidiaries have around 21,000 retail outlets throughout the country and commissioned hundreds of outlets last year itself, there is absolutely no need for the company to expand its network using second-hand assets.8It should be noted that RIL announced that it was shutting down its network of 1,432 petrol pumps across India -- which was set up at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore -- in March 2008 when its sales dipped to near zero as the company was unable to compete with the PSU oil companies, which sell fuel at subsidised rates. Reliance had recently sought an Expression of Interest (EOI) from IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum for a possible partnership for reopening the petrol pumps, but this proposal seems to have died a quiet death. Another option floated by Reliance was to hive-off the company's petrol pumps into a joint venture company between RIL and the PSU oil marketing companies, who have been asked to quote the equity stake they may want in the new venture and their model for operating it. (Click on Details for more information) Details

Kingfisher is top defaulter on fuel dues

Vijay Mallya Parties. We wondered where he is getting money to buy back Gandhi's Belongings and Frolicking with Miss Indias at GOA in new year. We have wondered how PSUs are USED as tools to SERVE Political Masters. We have always wondered how (pls someone tell me the exact %) 5% of people in INDIA hold on to 90% of wealth of this Country and why POOR remain Poor.. Well here is just one News item. Remember that Kingfisher owner is Rajya Sabha member and these people are powerful enough to make Govt Order PSUs to give what they want.

http://www.livemint.com/2009/04/03002000/Kingfisher-is-top-defaulter-on.html

Kingfisher Airlines owed around Rs1,000 crore to IOC, BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd as of February
Tarun Shukla, Utpal Bhaskar and P.R. Sanjai

New Delhi / Mumbai: On Tuesday, the last day of the fiscal year gone by and the deadline for closing out dues to state-run oil firms who supply it jet fuel, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, India’s largest carrier by passengers flown, missed making good the payments, ending fiscal 2009 with around Rs1,000 crore in arrears.

Airlines such as National Aviation Co. of India Ltd-run Air India and Jet Airways (India) Ltd, too, have missed some payments due to oil firms, but have dues much less than their bigger rival, said two executives at Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC).

“There are some delays and defaults by different airlines. They have agreed to pay in April on different dates. While some have paid, Kingfisher did not pay us anything after their last payment. They have written to us recently asking us for an extension till 10 April,” said a senior IOC executive, who asked not to be identified.

Separately, Kingfisher Airlines also missed paying Airports Authority of India (AAI) dues of at least Rs150 crore over use of the airports run by the regulator, a senior government official said. The airline was to make this payment to bring its dues with limits of its bank guarantees furnished to AAI.

As the consequence of missing the deadline for oil dues, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) has stopped selling jet fuel to Kingfisher Airlines on credit and instead moved to a so-called cash and carry arrangement, joining IOC in adopting a no-credit stance with the carrier, chaired and run by flamboyant millionaire Vijay Mallya.

The 31 March cut-off date was the sixth and last in a series of deadlines set out on 22 October, when the Union government allowed the country’s three largest carriers—Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines—to pay dues amounting to Rs2,962 crore over a period of six months to oil marketing firms.

The dues had accumulated and piled up, mostly in the first three quarters of 2008, as jet fuel prices scaled record highs through the year and peaked in August.

The staggered payment option was extended to the airlines, who had reported losses of a cumulative Rs2,888.13 crore in fiscal 2008. The deal, put together in the presence of oil minister Murli Deora and aviation minister Praful Patel, included fortnightly reviews of jet fuel prices instead of a monthly revision earlier, and offering a credit period of up to three months to help keep the airlines afloat.

But as the fiscal year came to an end, Kingfisher Airlines had not met its commitment, said a second IOC executive, who too asked not to be identified, even as Air India and Jet Airways had paid most of their dues by 31 March. It was not immediately clear how much these two carriers owed the firms.

Kingfisher Airlines owed around Rs1,000 crore to IOC, BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd as of February and there was no change, this executive added. Air India and Jet Airways have not paid interest on payments due, he added.

IOC, the country’s largest oil marketing firm, withdrew its credit facility to Kingfisher Airlines earlier this year, IOC chairman Sarthak Behuria had said in a 13 February interview. “I can only say that what you owe to me, you have to pay. If you don’t pay, you will be on (a) cash and carry basis,” he had said then.

Kingfisher Airlines, which has said it plans to raise $400 million (Rs2,012 crore), is now in talks with banks such as State Bank of India to raise up to Rs3,000 crore loans, said an executive with UB Group, of which the carrier is a part of, on condition of anonymity.

The deal, which is in the final stage of being signed, according to this executive, will help the airline meet its expenses and also help it pay its dues. Kingfisher is also trying to shore up funds from other private banks, he added.

Mallya on Thursday, when asked if his airline was in default of dues to oil firms, did not answer the specific question, instead telling reporters in Mumbai that all his aircraft were flying. Details of loans cannot be made public yet, he added. Kingfisher Airlines operates 400 daily flights with a fleet of 75 planes.

A spokesman for Kingfisher said the airline “does not wish to discuss or comment upon supplier relationships or banking arrangements” in response to emailed questions on dues.

Meanwhile, payment of interest on the dues continues to be a contentious issues between the airlines and the oil firms. The carriers say the issue was not discussed at the 22 October meeting with Deora, Patel, senior officials at both the oil and aviation ministries, and executives of the oil marketing firms, as also Mallya, Jet Airways executive director Saroj Dutta and Air India chairman and managing director Raghu Menon, in New Delhi.

Oil firms argue that is is understood that interest has to be paid on deferred payments.
On Thursday, senior officials at the aviation and oil ministries said they were not willing to intervene any more.

“It is for the oil marketing companies (OMCs) and the airlines to decide the issue. These are business decisions between them. The government had intervened when there were bad times for the airline industry. The time is different now,” said a top oil ministry official, who requested anonymity. “We have not been asked for any intervention in the matter by the OMCs.”
A senior civil aviation minister official, who asked not to be named, said it was a commercial issue that has to be dealt between two business entities.

Shares of Kingfisher Airlines rose 0.73% on the Bombay Stock Exchange to Rs34.55 each on a day the bourse’s benchmark index, the Sensex, surged 4.5%.
tarun.s@livemint.com

My dear Mr Vijay Mallya.. why do you not use your own funds on your Airlines instead of spending them on your women and drinks. Do please spare Public Money.

Courts Propose, Govt Disposes- Strikes in Oil Sector

Supreme Court may have ruled that it is a Constitutional Right for any body to go on strike in a Democracy but Govt thinks otherwise! Soon a Law soon to ban oil strikes is going to come it seems!!

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/law-soon-to-ban-oil-strikes/425400/
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Maneesh Chhibber Posted: Feb 19, 2009 at 0139 hrs IST

New Delhi: The Government is set to bring a bill in parliament making it illegal for Oil sector employees to go on strike. The Petroleum Sector Employees (Prohibition of Strikes) Bill, 2009 will ban strikes by all categories of employees of oil companies including contractual staff and employee associations, sources in the petroleum ministry told The Indian Express. The bill is likely to be introduced in the current session of parliament, the sources said.

A three-day strike by nearly 55,000 employees of state-owned oil companies demanding higher salaries and perks paralysed the nation last month with fuel pumps and gas outlets running dry and air traffic getting disrupted. The striking oilmen backed off after the government took a tough line, sacking 70-odd officers, invoking ESMA and calling in the Army to maintain supplies.
According to the draft of the proposed law, striking oilmen will face, in addition to strict disciplinary action including summary dismissal, jail terms of up to a year and/or a fine up to Rs 50,000.

But, the most striking feature of the proposed law is that it allows police to arrest striking employees without a warrant. Arrested employees will not be released on bail unless the prosecution has been heard by a magistrate and given an opportunity to oppose the bail plea.
Another tough clause provides for summary trials by designated courts.

Oil employees who will lose their right to strike work if the bill is passed include those involved in exploration, drilling, processing and distribution. They include all types of employees, whether in managerial, supervisory, non-managerial, manual or contractual labour categories.

Sources said many provisions of the proposed law are not in sync with the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 — something that could lead to opposition from some parties.

Cricketers for Sale - Money Flies!!

On sale were 50 cricketers, all overseas players. Till a day ago, the perception was largely that the buyers would flinch. But India Inc proved it all wrong. By the time the auction got over, Lalit Modi, IPL chairman, could hardly stop smiling. “It is just amazing, great,’’ he kept saying. At the end of the two-hour process, around $7.67 million — a whopping Rs 37.5 crore — had been spent on buying just 17 players. “Recession? What recession? IPL doesn’t have any recession,’’ a bidder was heard saying.

After the auctions got over, the celebrities lurked around, chatting about cricket for a change. “It looks like fun. Sure, it is fun. But it’s also business. What went on inside was fierce bidding,’’ Wadia said.

That such big business got done was almost impossible to believe, given the party atmosphere. Speaking of parties, a lavish one awaited them all, hosted by liquor baron Mallya.

The above front page news item on TOI dtd 7/2/09 makes us think?
In an economic system Money does not get created nor destroyed, it only changes hands, unless the Govt wants to push in more money by printig more!. Say the world is one system then the total money would be constant in it. Will it not be?

What happens is that money changes hands, from one person to another, from one country to another, from stocks to banks and vice versa. When we hear recesssion and nobody buying anything it only means people who can buy have either lost their money to others or are just holding on to their money and certainly those who have taken the money of the former group, if that is so, are also holding on to their money and not spending. Hence Recession means less expenditure.

If money is constant then question arises where does the rich get their money from? Where did Vijay Mallya get his money from? And why then does he ask Govt of India to bail out his ailing Airlines at the cost of Public Money either through direct monetary packages or indirectly through interest free credit supplies of ATF from Oil PSUs which are already reeling with losses?

Whose money are we spending Mr Mallya and Ambani, even if you say it is your well earned money, where did the money get produced and come from?

When money is getting concentrated only in the hands of 5% of Indians.. or the rich of the world (the % fig is appxmt) then why will there not be discontent?

Govt meddles with Performance Appraisals in PSUs

The Govt first does not increase salaries as expected...now it pre-determines how many outstanding performers can be there in a PSU.. How can performance be pre-determined? By fixing a cap on how many people can be marked as Outstanding Performers, are they not actually suppressing performance. On one hand this Govt talks of performance linked pay and on other hand they are putting a cap!!

Incidentally this is a part of Rao Commission Report.. and this too should have been objected by OSOA.. and all PSU associations!!
http://m.economictimes.com/PDAET/articleshow/4078175.cms

POLICYCentre reworks appraisal system for PSU staff5 Feb, 2009, 1055 hrs IST, Sushmi Dey & Dheeraj Tiwari, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The government is putting in place a performance management system in public sector companies to have a uniform mechanism for distributing performance-linked bonus to employees. At present, these companies have their own parameters for rewarding executives.

“The second pay revision committee proposed to develop a robust and transparent performance management system for central public sector enterprises (CPSEs). The proposal has found favour in the government. The department of public enterprises and other administrative ministries are now working in conjunction to put the new system in place,” a department of heavy industry official, who wished not to be named, said.

Under the new system, the government will ask CPSEs to adopt a “Bell Curve Approach” while grading its executives, he said. Only 10-15% of the executives in a public sector undertaking will be graded as “outstanding or excellent” in their performance appraisal. According to the new system, about 10% of officers in a company would be graded as “below par”, he added.

Some companies have a similar appraisal system. “We already have a sophisticated performance management system in place, which is much like the new one that the government has prescribed,” Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) chairman and managing director K Ravi Kumar said. According to a Bhel official, the company is the first PSU to implement electronic network-based paperless appraisal process. In Bhel, the executives set key result areas (KRAs) and targets for themselves, which are assessed and revised every year by a committee.

When the new system is in place, all CPSEs will be mandated to sign MoUs with their respective controlling ministries. The MoU rating will then form the basis of performance-related pay for executives in these companies. “CPSEs that do not enter into MoU will not be eligible for any performance-related pay,” the official said.

Deora tells oil firms to up social spends- Milching Cows- the Oil Sector

Deora tells oil firms to up social spends.

Just see what else Politicians do with PSUs! This will throw further light on why Govt does not want to give full independence to OIL PSUs.

Economy Bureau Posted: 2009-02-03 01:13:27+05:30 IST
Updated: Feb 03, 2009 at 0113 hrs IST

Mumbai: In an interesting development barely days before notification of the general elections scheduled for April-May—and imposition of the model code of conduct—the government has told state-run oil marketing companies to increase threefold their spending on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by petroleum minister Murli Deora with the heads of these PSUs in Mumbai on Monday. “More money will be available for CSR activities from these companies. This will definitely help improve the quality of life of the people in the vicinity of major units and installations of these companies,” Deora told FE.

Retailers Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, together with exploration & production major ONGC and Oil India Ltd, gas transporter GAIL India and Engineers India must now allocate 2% of their profit after tax (PAT), from the present 1% on CSR activities.

However, the decision to raise CSR spends comes at a time when the profitability of several of these companies are under strain thanks to rising subsidy burdens and crude oil price fluctuations. ONGC’s Q3 net slipped 43% to Rs 2,475 crore, against Rs 4,367 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Similarly, HPCL’s net losses mounted to Rs 422 crore, compared with Rs 15.74 crore. In financial year 2007-08, the PAT for these companies amounted to Rs 31,236.04 crore, of which Rs 222.31 crore was allocated to CSR. Under the revised 2% norm, they are expected to collectively shell out around Rs 650 crore.

Analysts, though, said while the CSR initiative is noble, the companies and their shareholders would have been better served if these funds were ploughed back into growth plans. Petroleum secretary RS Pande, who was also present at the meeting, said, “As there are practically two months remaining in the current fiscal, today’s decision will be effective from financial year 2009-10. Within a month, these companies will get approval from their boards of directors. The boards, whenever necessary, will also review the CSR activities.”

Pande said any allocated money that is left unspent during the fiscal would be carried over into the next year. These companies have already touched the lives lakhs of people by supporting social, cultural, educational and environmental initiatives with a focus on partnering communities in health, family welfare, education, environment protection, provision of clean drinking water, sanitation and empowerment of women and other marginalised groups. GAIL India had already decided to double its budget allocation to 2% for CSR activities in 2009-10. CMD UD Choubey said, “The company has already spent Rs 27.09 crore against the budgeted expenditure of Rs 26 crore for 2008-09.”

New Microsoft Word Document

Publish at Scribd or explore others: oil sector

Ministry intervention sought to make airlines pay interest

Rob Peter to Pay Paul is a common approach for all Rules who mismanage their countries!

But when the Peters are OIL Sector PSUs and Pauls are Pvt airliners.. then should Indian not frown? Whose money is going where? Do not forget the amassing of wealth by the Pvt Sector Owners (Satyam's Raju is not just the one.. though he may have ben caught on the wrong side by cheating Govt laws).

The following news item is interesting.

http://www.livemint.com/articles/2009/02/04225541/Ministry-intervention-sought-t.html

New Delhi: The ministry of petroleum and natural gas wants its civil aviation counterpart to ask airline firms to pay state-owned oil marketers interest on credit to buy jet fuel.
The interest that the three airlines—Jet Airways (India) Ltd, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and National Aviation Co. of India Ltd (Nacil), which operates Air India—have to pay is around Rs111 crore as on 31 December, said an official of Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC), who declined being named.
The government had eased the immediate financial concerns of the loss-making domestic carriers by allowing them to pay up in six equal instalments the dues amounting to Rs2,962 crore owed to the oil retailers in October.
Nacil, Jet and Kingfisher owed Rs886 crore, Rs1,057 crore and Rs983 crore, respectively, to IOC, Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) at the time of the arrangement. Of the Rs2,962 crore, a payment of Rs2,131 crore was overdue.
“No airline is paying the interest accrued on this outstanding amount. We have taken up the issue with the airlines and even the (oil) ministry has written to the civil aviation ministry. This interest is charged on any delayed payment beyond 90 days,” the IOC executive said.
While Jet owes Rs5 crore, Rs1 crore and Rs5.5 crore to BPCL, HPCL and IOC, respectively, Nacil owes Rs25 crore, Rs4 crore and Rs25 crore to these firms as interest. Kingfisher owes Rs19 crore, Rs20 crore and Rs6 crore to BPCL, HPCL and IOC, respectively.
“Though we have been receiving EMIs (equated monthly instalments) from the other two airlines, Kingfisher has defaulted on payments. Between the three OMCs (oil marketing companies), they (Kingfisher) owe Rs1,000 crore,” the IOC executive said.
“At the time of the meeting between petroleum minister Murli Deora and civil aviation minister Praful Patel, the question of interest was not raised explicitly. While our OMCs are of the view that this interest should be paid, the airlines maintain that this issue was not raised,” A petroleum ministry official, who declined being identified, said. “However, we have conveyed this point to the civil aviation ministry and we have been assured that the issue will be sorted out commercially.”
The arrangement was decided at a 22 October meeting of Deora, Patel, senior officials of both ministries, OMCs and airline executives, including Kingfisher chairman Vijay Mallya, Jet’s executive director Saroj Dutta and Air India chief Raghu Menon.
“We do not default on payments and we have paid by the schedule,” said a Jet Airways spokeswoman on Wednesday, without elaborating on interest dues.
Kingfisher Airlines didn’t reply to emailed questions. A senior Air India official said that since it is a state-owned company, like the oil marketers, the issue of payments will be settled between the two ministries.
A New Delhi-based aviation analyst said airlines should not be allowed to finance their operations on taxpayers’ money, and since they have already got a relief, they should follow basic credit rules.
“You (airlines) wanted a moratorium on the principal (amount) and not on the interest. You got it,” this analyst said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
utpal.b@livemint.com

How Election Considerations Ruin OIL Sector

The Oil Sector has been a cash cow always as we all know. But do we also know that this is also a milking cow? Our earlier posts talked of how much money was spent on officials and ministers (all public news items only and nothing cooked up by this blog).

We will today post an analysis of Crisil on price cuts. If oil companies are going to suffer by these Price Cuts then why these are being effected? Is it because of the Vote Bank? Are there no other ways to bring down the prices?

Ref Mark 0109-CRISIL Report

Publish at Scribd or explore others: oil sector

The Mystery Unravels Further- Nexus Between Reliance and Govt

There is a serious doubt in the minds of all thinking indviduals that the Oil Strike was forced by Certain People to show the PSU oil companies in a bad light and so pave the way for rampant Privatisation of this Crucial Sector stiffling opposition from other parties by proving a point "that PSUs cannot be trusted!!" Look what Mr R.S. Pandey has said in this news item quoted below.

Our earlier stories were "The nexus between Reliance and Govt" and "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", complemented by our arguments at "The Govt is Celebrating its Success" , what Mr R.S. Pandey said. All posts can be seen by choosing Label="Reliance"

http://www.indiaprwire.com/businessnews/20090111/36816.htm
Quote:

Oil strike should not occur again: Petroleum secretary

New Delhi, Delhi, India, 2009-01-11 18:45:02

The oil industry will do 'introspection' to ensure that there is no recurrence of the strike that paralysed the economy this week, Petroleum Secretary R.S. Pandey said here Sunday.

'We have to ensure that the trauma does not occur again. The oil industry will have to undertake introspection,' Pandey told reporters at the inauguration of the media centre for the country's premier oil and gas conference, Petrotech 2009.

Nearly 45,000 employees of the public sector energy companies went on strike from Wednesday, demanding higher salaries. It lasted three days, with retail petrol vends closing down and fertilizer and power plants shutting shop due to lack of oil supplies.

The government took a tough stand, invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act in several places. The state-run oil upstream major ONGC suspended 64 employees and IndianOil took action against three.

Petroleum Secretary Pandey said their fate after the strike would be decided by the companies.

Asked if the management of the oil companies would be taken to task for reportedly giving covert support to the striking employees, Pandey said: 'I am not aware of any such action'. He added that most of the gas and petrol supplies would be 'completely normal by (Sunday) night'.
All IndianOil refineries are back in action and in full capacity, except for the Gujarat refinery which has been deliberately kept at a lower capacity due to technical reasons.

ONGC chairman R.S. Sharma noted that the western offshore production has nearly gone back to normal. 'In the morning, the production was at 310 million barrels, compared to the regular rate of 342 million barrels,' he said.

Describing the oil sector employees as 'intransigent', the top official in the petroleum and natural gas ministry said the government has already constituted a high-level committee, chaired by Home Minister P. Chidambaram, to look into the demands of the oil sector officials.

'If they have genuine grievances, then these will be redressed,' he said.

On the role of private players in the energy retail sector, Pandey said: 'The government will seriously consider how to associate private players in the system. But what the decision will be, whether positive or negative, I cannot say.'

In the private sector, Essar Oil has already been operating over 1,000 outlets in the country, while Reliance has also indicated it wanted to re-enter the retail market.

Pandey added that public sector oil companies were still calculating the losses due to the strike.
The secretary did not reply when asked if there would be a revision of fuel prices, as indicated by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora in Mumbai Saturday. 'Any clear discussion on the price will take place at the cabinet,' he said.

Endquote

Media forgot to point out that had Mr Murli Deora not been hinting at Price Cuts, the dealers would have stocked up their tanks in view of the impending strike which was well announced in advance. But who wants to lose money? So the dealers did not stock product. So while Someone at the top refused to listen to a single demand wanting OIL PSUs to go on a strike so that it can pave the way for the Pvt players to come in in a massive way, someone else actually created the dry outs!!

There are other posts on this blog which shows how much concern Reliance has for the nation as they showed by their practices so far.

NTPC case: Ministry, counsel speak in different voices

Conspiracy hatched by Reliance is not something new. Unlike Tatas and Birlas this Industrial group came into existence and rose to its stupendous heights in Just One Generation and such fast growth cannot be achieved through normal routes. The Indian Public however sees and knows only what the Media tells them. Well we too are using the same media to collate some news items which seems to point towards something sinister at play.

Our earlier stories were "The nexus between Reliance and Govt" and "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", complemented by our arguments at "The Govt is Celebrating its Success" , what Mr R.S. Pandey said. All posts can be seen by choosing Label="Reliance"

Quote
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=332638

NTPC case: Ministry, counsel speak in different voices

After the power ministry and state-owned power utility NTPC took strong exception to the petroleum and natural gas ministry’s lawyer Tejinder Singh Doabia telling the Bombay High Court last Thursday that the RIL-NTPC deal was not a ‘concluded’ one, the petroleum ministry has asked the lawyer to withdraw his statement when the case is heard again on September 1.

The twist is that while the ministry says Doabia’s interjection in the Mukesh-Anil Ambani case (Reliance Industries Limited versus Reliance Natural Resources Limited) was beyond his brief, Doabia insists it was the ministry which instructed him to do so.

In a letter to Joint Secretary DN Narasimha Raju last Saturday, Doabia refers to an earlier e-mail by him on August 13 where he had asked the ministry for a copy of the RIL-NTPC agreement so that he could study it for arguing his case.

In this e-mail, Doabia had said: “I believe that this was not final …” and that, in any case, “the price fixed in the NTPC agreement is subject to approval of Government of India”. His letter of August 23 then goes on to say:

“In response to the above e-mail, I was instructed that there is no concluded agreement and mere letter of intent was issued.”

Doabia’s letter comes a day after he was telephoned by Raju asking for details of what had actually transpired in the Bombay High Court following media reports on the proceedings.

Doabia chose not to comment on the letter when asked by Business Standard, saying, “No, no, I will not comment … there has already been a lot of muck on this.”

Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey and Raju, however, both confirmed they had indeed received Doabia’s letter though Pandey stressed all that mattered was that Doabia had been asked to withdraw his statement.

When asked, Pandey said he had no idea who had briefed Doabia to say what he had — Doabia had been hired four or five months ago, Pandey said, and would have briefed by a variety of officials.

Raju said he had never briefed Doabia, while Pandey said he was unaware of whether his predecessor had left any instructions saying the deal was not ‘concluded’.

In 2003, Reliance had won a global bid edging out bidders like Shell to supply NTPC 12 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas for 17 years at a price of $2.34 per mmBtu (million metric British thermal units).

Towards the end of 2005, Reliance changed some of the terms of the contract — instead of an unlimited liability in case it failed to supply NTPC the requisite gas, Reliance capped its liability. NTPC refused to accept this and other changes and did not sign on the new terms.

Instead, it filed a case in the Bombay High Court asking that Reliance be told to fulfill its original contract. So, when Doabia said the NTPC-RIL deal was not a ‘concluded’ one, he effectively demolished NTPC’s entire case.

The NTPC case is important in the Reliance Industries Limited-Reliance Natural Resources Limited fight since the commercial terms of their contract were similar to those in the NTPC case. If there is no ‘concluded’ NTPC-RIL contract, there can logically be no concluded RIL-RRNL contract either.

Endquote

The Mysterious Affair at Styles - An Agatha Christie Mystery

With impeccable timing Hercule Poirot, the renowned Belgian detective, makes his dramatic entrance on to the English crime stage. Recently, there had been some strange goings on at Styles St Mary. Evelyn, constant companion to old Mrs Inglethorp, had stormed out of the house muttering something about 'a lot of sharks'. And with her, something indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt security; now the air seemed rife with suspicion and impending evil. A shattered coffee cup, a splash of candle grease, a bed of begonias all Poirot required to display his now legendary powers of detection........

Replace a few words .. "Styles" by Office of the Secy,where who knows what is being planned, "Sharks" by Reliance who may be waiting to pounce, "Security" by Trust which is no longer there, impending evil by .... well impending evil nothing less.

Further to our last post on "The Nexus of Corruption- Reliance and Govt" here is some eye-opener news items our people could dig up from the web from this link:-
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/samajwadi-party-suspects-ril-hand-in-new-oil-secy-selection/352984/

Samajwadi Party suspects RIL hand in new oil secy selection

New Delhi, August 24: Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh has asked the Government to cancel the appointment of R S Pandey as petroleum secretary, saying there was a “suspicious” role of Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani in the crucial appointment. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Samajwadi Party general secretary has said that Pandey’s appointment “should be cancelled forthwith”. The Prime Minister has sent a reply acknowledging the party’s letter.

Incidentally, Pandey’s appointment came just before former petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan retirement on July 31. The SP leader had then alleged that Srinivasan was showing favouritism to RIL and had demanded a CBI probe. Noting that Pandey’s appointment reflects “the unholy influence of one of the biggest industrial houses in the appointments of key government officials,” Singh, in his letter dated July 29, expressed concern on the “unexpected haste and suspicious co-incidental meetings” between the RIL chairman and Pandey before his appointment as petroleum secretary. Singh quoted media reports that said that Ambani met Pandey, just a day before his appointment, in a meeting facilitated by Minister of State for Steel Jatin Prasada.

Besides this, 24-hours after his appointment, petroleum minister Murli Deora himself hosted a tripartite meeting in his house between Pandey and Ambani, Singh said. Singh has also expressed his concern that these meetings send “wrong signals overall reflecting a suspicious nexus leading maybe to even favouritism to select players”.

With ENS inputs

THE STORY BEHIND THE TEAR EYED AIR HOSTESS ON YOUR FRONT PAGE

The GOI & Ministry (PNG) staged reel drama in retrospect of the Oil Strike comes as a big eye opener to me. In retrospect, did anyone wonder about the sacking of the Jet Airways Air hostess? Surely those young girls were in the dark, but tear eyed on media front pages, they beat up the sentiments of all the fools & patriots of our country, including me. And overnight they were reinstated by their CMD Goyal, stating he could not sleep that night. I was surprised by the suddenness of this reversal of his decision. Too good to be true. Surely now you can smell the rat, in hindsight, looking at how adept these master sinners of our Ministry are. These master plotters & our minister “Uncle Reliance” came out as the winner of this game. The first win: In the eye of the people, he became the Conscious driven & Magnanimous guy!!!

Now this was stated as something necessary, coz of economic meltdown. What a wall? Now who can deny that? Mind you, this happened even before the real impact of meltdown was to be addressed by the world. Forget about some minuscule private Airlines operating from Mumbai coming in way of Global Meltdown in a matter of hours. A conspiracy that in all probability was hatched by none other than the chief sinner in our Ministry (PNG), so he could make massive payouts as soft loans from loss making Oil Companies to the Private Airliners. The second win for our Minister “Uncle Reliance”.

Surely without this staged drama, he could not fuel the rich & the famous. Even today the common man’s & suicidal farmer’s diesel or fuel price has not been addressed, but the Aviation Turbine Fuel cost was slashed many times over. Aha!! The rich & the famous needed to be bailed out in India first, much much before the farmer (who suicides) or the back broken common man. How else can money change hands, & trickle into the party funds? Aha now that is Uncle Reliance’s third win, the money changing hands.

Surely if the common mans fuel price was to be cut, no kickbacks & party funds to be realized. His memory is short, so it has to be timed just before the elections for votes.

True we Oilmen along with our fellow Indians are nothing but Fools & Traitors, hopelessly believing in the reel stories of the Govt & media.

Anyhow, Oilmen, where do we stand today? Are we ready for another Fight, with this traitocrats of India? As for me, I have lost all faith in this Govt after being conned to think Congress was for Aam Admee, a voice for the minorities, a friend of the poor & the down trodden. Poor me. God save this country from those who make heroes out of Azharruddins & Traitors out of us. Guess we need to think seriously of taking flight outwards, though that’s something they would really want!! Surely even as a second or third rated citizen, with our education & experience, we could still have sanity & self respect, don’t you think!!! Maybe we need to then call ourselves proudCanadian or proudAustralian & so forth.

Contributed by an Oil Officer

Letter to Editors of Newspapers by Aggrieved Officers

Dear Editors

First, we thank on behalf of all the PSU oilfield officers for bringing out the real facts behind the oil strike recently by some newspapers. It was a moment of grief and deep disappointment when we were called ‘Deshdrohis’, ‘Traitors’, ‘Blackmailers’, etc.

Sir, officers of Oil PSU's are not goondas, gang leaders, anti-social elements or terrorists to take the country for ransom. They are all educated, responsible and dedicated officers of the most profit making and fortune 500 companies. It is very easy to enact ESMA and threaten an upright middle class man who went through the right procedures before going on strike in our democratic country. Officers and their families are deeply disturbed, demoralised and demotivated by the actions of the government and the media.

We definitely feel there is a bigger conspiracy and some vested interest to tarnish the image of these profit making Navratna PSU's. These are world class companies providing huge revenue to the goverment and subsidies to the common public.
IS THIS THE RIGHT PATH TO PRIVATIZATION?

Here are some of the recent government actions to ponder

1. Reliance had closed its petrol pumps due to crude oil price, no ESMA or nor they are deshdrohis.
2. Private air-liners like JET and KingFisher had stopped flights few months back, government had financially bailed out for 3 to 6 months time for repayment of ATF charges. (& that too at the cost of PSU oil companies who were asked to extend credit when we all know that the Oil Cos are losing money due to high crude prices)
3. JET airways had sacked its employees, government and political parties intervened to stop them from such actions.
4. Satyam carried out 7000 crores fraud and government plans to bail out with financial aids.

However if an oil psu worker goes on strike as a last resort after repeated failure of talks and inaction from government officials for more than 2 years, then he is a Deshdrohi, Traitor, Blackmailer…etc.

India is a great democracy with a liberalized economy and visionary leaders like our Prime Minister, dismantling APM in Oil sector and providing opportunities for private sector to explore our country for oil & gas through NELP. In this competitive environment, PSU’s are no more charity organizations nor are the employees working for charity. These Oil PSU's have to compete with private companies like Reliance, BG, Shell, Cairn Energy..etc. To compete you need good performance, and for good performance you need motivated working employees and officers. Many experienced and talented officers have left these PSU's and joined Reliance and other Pvt companies because they provide better pay and facilitites. It is this attrition which led to the demands to save the Oil PSU's from becoming sick units.

Its was quite surprising how media had misinformed the general public by reporting that junior officers had a starting pay of Rs One Lakh. An experienced Oil PSU employee gets below Rs.50000/- even after rendering 10 – 15 years of service. Moreover, it is quite illogical to compare the salaries of high court judges with PSU officers. Can we compare the powers, authority and status of judges, collectors or defence officers to a PSU officer, who is an ordinary citizen by status. Oil PSU officers did not ask salaries comparable to the IT industry which is very highly paid. Demand was only to compete with private oil players like Reliance, reduce attrition and prevent national oil companies becoming sick units. I quote the former MoP&NG Mr. Mani Shanker Aiyer " If you pay peanuts, only monkeys will be left in ONGC."

It was quite heart-breaking to listen to the media calling our officers ‘Deshdrohis’, ‘Traitors’, ‘Blackmailers’, etc. Media was totally biased and hijacked by the government with the help of private oil players and vested interests. Media outright rejected to report the officers view and demanded huge amounts in several lakhs of rupees to air and present the real facts. A corrupt media will lead a nation to disaster.

OSOA did not go on strike overnight, they put their demands long back, had informed the government ministry about resentment in the pay revision package. Oil companies had several meetings with management and govt. officials past two years, had carried out dharnas, hunger strike, work to rule, etc before issuing strike notice when all talks and promises failed. Even the strike dates were defered for various reasons, what was the govt. and the petroleum ministry doing all this time? Officers had resorted to strike after losing their patience due to the INACTION of Government officials. Why questions are not raised against these bureaucrats?

IS THIS THE RIGHT PATH TO PRIVATIZATION?
PLEASE SAVE OUR COMPANIES FROM BECOMING SICK UNITS.

Jai Hind

Sincere Officers (Names withheld to avoid draconian measures by Govt.)
OIL PSU

Assam Tribune EDITORIAL: The Oil PSU strike: other side of the story

The Oil PSU strike: other side of the story— A. Krishnatreya (All of you please write a thanks letter to him at edit.tribune@gmail.com. Remember to thank those who tell the facts of both sides and blast those who hide one side of the story.)

During the recent strike by the Oil PSU employees, which badly hit the country’s economy and brought life to a grinding halt in many cities, it was natural for the people to censure the striking employees in the toughest words. This is because of the general perception that oil sector PSUs like ONGC, IOC, GAIL etc are already very highly paid and any further demand for better pay is unjustified. The media left no stone unturned in proving that the striking employees are getting much more than their due and the only way to address their grievances is to suspend them or take strict measures. Yes, it is true that a strike which can cripple the Indian economy is not justified, but why did such a strike have to take place at all? Has anyone presented the other side of the story?

The concept of the Public Sector Unit was visualised by some of our great leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, to make the country self sufficient in certain key sectors like oil, coal and steel. The initial days were tough, when these new units, still in their infancy had to take on the global giants like Shell and Chevron. But as time passed and people gained experience, the experiment proved to be a success and many of the PSUs started making their presence felt not only in the country but also in global business. One among them is ONGC, which started off as a branch under the geological survey of India and in 50 years established itself as India’s most valuable company with assets in 16 countries. Did this happen out of the blue? Certainly not. It happened because of the consistent efforts by a group of highly qualified and dedicated engineers, geologists and executives. But after the collapse of the permit raj and the opening up of the Indian economy, private players came into the picture and the easiest way for them to hire quality manpower was to poach from the State run PSU s which already had a pool of well qualified and dedicated workforce. And this was quite an easy task, because the salary they offered was at least 5-6 times what a PSU employee was paid.

It is a common misconception that OIL PSU employees are overpaid for the job they do almost everyone seems to support this idea. But what they forget is that the OIL PSU officers are drawn from the cream of the engineering and science graduates. The entry criteria are very strict and the national level written tests needed to qualify can be compared to the civil services examinations. Moreover, officers employed through campus placements are also drawn from only the very best institutes. And where do these officers work? Well, the oil sector is a cruel world where there are hardly any white collared jobs, except perhaps at the top management level. So most of them work in fields located at remote areas or hundreds of Miles in the sea. Life is tough and every drop of oil is produced through the sweat of the engineers, quite literally. And at the end of the day how much are they paid? If we compare the gross annual emoluments of the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of ONGC and that of L&T the results are startling! The ONGC CMD gets around Rs. 13 lakh an annum whereas the top boss of L&T gets a staggering Rs. 5.85 crores. If this is the discrepancy at the top level, we can well guess what the situation is like at the lower or middle management level. On an average a private sector oil employee gets at least 5-6 times more than his PSU counterpart. And that too when many a time he is lesser qualified and poorly trained. No wonder that the attrition levels of the Oil PSU s are at a record high.

Another myth among the people is that PSU employees are casual about their work and unlike their private counterparts have little or no responsibility. It is very wrong to equate an Oil PSU employee with a government employee. A PSU employee may have a secure job, but he is certainly accountable for it and many of his variable remunerations are performance based. Targets are set and achieved in record time. Is this possible without hard work? The professional competence of PSU officers have been amply demonstrated in many instances. A glaring example is MRPL, the refinery set up by the AV Birla group as a joint venture in the mid nineties. The refinery was so badly managed that it seldom came into full production of 7MMTPA besides going into huge losses. Finally, unable to manage it, The AV Birla group sold off its stake to ONGC and in six months the debt of the refinery was reduced from Rs. 5500 crores to Rs. 188 crores and in less than 2 years the company started giving profits. At present, MRPL is not only producing at full capacity and earning huge profits but there are plans to increase its producing capacity. Does this not speak of the competence of Public sector Oil companies?

It is often said that privatising is the only sane option left for the Oil PSUs. But what people fail to see is that many of these PSUs are doing much better than their private counterparts. ONGC, for example, is India’s biggest Integrated Oil and Gas Company. Till recently it had the largest market capitalisation (recently overtaken by Reliance) and is India’s most valuable corporate. For the financial year 2007-08, it had a net profit of Rs. 19872 crores and paid a dividend of Rs. 6844 crores to the Indian government (the highest by any corporate). Not just that, it also shared a subsidy burden of Rs. 38500 crores of the downstream oil companies like IOC and BPCL so that the common man can keep buying petrol and diesel at highly subsidised rates. Private players like Reliance stopped selling petrol from their outlets simply because they were not prepared to bear the subsidy burden and so kept their prices high. The contentious issue of the pay commission report tabled by the Justice M.J.Rao committee has to be carefully looked into. It has to be borne in mind that unlike government employees who get central DA, the Oil PSU employees get a variable industrial DA which is substantially. Lower. Moreover, a government employee gets a pension which amounts to 50% of the last salary drawn, whereas a - PSU employee doesn’t have any such scheme. Besides, most of the engineers working in the fields have to work on shifts of 12 hours and in environments which are termed as hazardous whereas all government employees have a maximum 8 hour work per day in safe and secure work environments. So where does the parity between government and Oil PSUs come from? Finally, it needs to be remembered that the burden of paying the revised salary to the employees is to be borne by the PSUs, without any contribution from the government’s side. So why does it not have the independence to fix the pay of its own employees and have to be governed by the government pay commissions? It has been necessary to put all this on record because of the consistent manner in which oil PSUs have been maligned both by the government and the media over a strike which was necessitated by factors created solely by the government itself.

The Nexus of Corruption: Reliance and Government

There is a gnawing feeling in the minds of every OIL Men of the Public Sector why they kept on deferring the issue for two years and then pushed us into a strike and THEN by refusing to budge an inch and accept minimum legitimate demands their real intention was to show Oil PSUs in a bad light so as to pave the way to hand over the assets of the country to one power Private group. And we all know where power flows from ? The gun barrel or money?

See this link which seems to be talking of some nexus much earlier. We are of course not experts at commenting on national issues and neither should we be drawn into them. But friends let us read what some experts are already saying.

http://desicritics.org/2008/09/09/005819.php

Some excerpts from the website :-

Quote

The Nexus of Corruption: Reliance and Government
September 09, 2008C R Sridhar

A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.’ - Amos Bronson Alcott, American Educator.

One of the common myths circulated in Indian mainstream media is about the inherent dynamism of the Private sector, which offers a refreshing contrast to the venal, corrupt and mendacious class of politicians and government officials. The Captains of Industries are sympathetically portrayed as dynamic, hard working and enterprising people who are thwarted by soul stifling regulation imposed by the Government. Unlike the moribund Public Sector, say the business friendly media, the Private Sector is efficient and creates a big pie in the economy. But unfortunately, like all myths, it has elements of truth but deceives us by not presenting the whole picture.

.................

One of the most remarkable books to emerge in the Indian publishing scene in recent times is Reliance- The Real Natwar written by Arun K. Agrawal.

.......

The spotlight of the book is on the alleged involvement of Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL) in the Iraq oil-for-food scam. As the author says in his book,

‘This book has its origin, in the compulsion, born of exasperation, experienced by the author to record the failure- or, more accurately, the self-serving refusal – of the Indian political and administrative system to investigate the award of extremely lucrative oil contracts under the United Nations- administered Oil- for-Food programme in Iraq to RPL in transactions manifestly driven by kickbacks/ bribery and bipartisan political patronage.’

...................... Tip of the iceberg: The Oil for Food scam was not an isolated instance of Reliance Petroleum Limited walking away from corruption unscathed. There are also other scandals involving the Reliance Group. One of which was the deal involving Panna-Mukta- oil fields - given to Reliance during the Congress government by Captain Satish Sharma who was the Minister of oil and Natural Gas and a close friend of Rajiv Gandhi.

............... A dangerous collusion:

When the interests of Big business coincide with the personal interests of politicians and bureaucrats of the government, then it can be safely assumed that public good or national interest would be in an irreversible terminal decline. As Timothy P. Carney in his book The Big Rip-off: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money says,

‘Today's largest corporations have mastered the art of working with government officials at every level to stifle market competition. They reap billions through a complex web of higher taxes, stricter regulations, and shameless government handouts.’

Endquote

Need we say more? The truth is out there for all to see. It is time now for us to direct the attention to the real malady of the system.

Look Ahead- RS Pandey says

What do we think looking ahead means? This will be evident from some news items soon to come from the same media on of which is already appearing in the Hindu on 16th Jan'09 that Govt is thinking of Deregulating the Pricing Mechanism to help Private Players in Retail Business.

Press Cip1 Jan13

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other eBooks oil sector

Media Role

My friends and colleagues have poured their anguish in the pages preceding mine. At this moment, I would just like to add a few points :-

• In the not too far away past, when our country was on the throes of bankruptcy and gold had to be pledged, there was only one organization which could stand “sovereign” guarantee to the nation and that is IndianOil. We, as employees had toiled hard to achieve the sovereign guarantor status, and are proud of this fact, and if the effort then constitutes to be termed as terrorists, it is pathetic on the part of misguided media.
• In the last few days, the media has acted as the witness, jury and judge – all rolled in one – and condemned all Oil Sector officers. The famed equality principle was nowhere to be seen or heard. Was the media muzzled and forced to portray one side of the story only? The simple journalistic principle of checking a hypothesis and verifying before reporting as a fact was totally thrown out of the window. Does TRP and revenue cloud the simple act of judgement?
• During the Crude Oil crisis, PSUs were forced to operate their Retail Outlets (ROs) and sell products at Government dictated prices. The effect is there for the entire world to see – with huge losses day after day, and poor balance sheets in addition to downgrading of rating leading to further erosion in value. The private Oil Companies had promptly closed their ROs without any compunction whatsoever.
• Why did the media take the partisan line? Was there pressure from Govt. or the private Oil companies who had made the media toe their line? Is there an insidious design to market their products in the country, when the EOU status, received under great fanfare, is now no more attractive with overseas markets in doldrums?

There are deeper issues than what has been portrayed in the media. A debate on the role of media and other agencies involved or likely to benefit from discrediting of Oil Sector officers is imperative. I am sure we all want the truth to come out and the taint of “terrorist” with which we have been painted, will have to be washed away.

Nandakumar

Apathy of oil PSUs and their employees

Copy of msg posted at http://www.lkadvani.in/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1244&start=0#p2880#p2880 by gentleman below

by asif on Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:59 am

Dear friends,This is my first mail in the forum and it is regarding image tarnishing of oil sector PSU employees. The dragaonian attempt to sell the PSU and selfishness of the buearocrats. Above all the media had also some fixing with the government which is very bad for democracy. It is because of the selfishness and short sightedness of some people at the top of the power echelons that the energy sector may slipoff tp private the hands of indian government in near future. Some conspiracy is being hatched as is evident from the present political equations.

The Oil sector strike, which started so smoothly, had a very dramatic ending. Whole episode raised many question, most of it still remains unanswered. This episode had been clearly considered as “naak ki ladai” by the bureaucrats, who enjoy the upper echelon of power. With this article I just want to expose what happened behind the scene (as per my perception). The three angles to this quadrilateral (one being the OIL PSU’S officers) are 1) The bureaucrats / IAS lobby, 2) The Politicians 3) The Industrialists (i.e.The Ambanis).

It is true that we got a raw deal. The government sidelined The Rao committee report, which took 2 years to finalize the pay recommendations of oil PSU. Our new package was completed in just 4 lines & a pay band table. It was a complete rush-rush job. The IAS lobby is the most powerful lobby of this nation. Petroleum secretary, R. S. Pandey is one of the members of this lobby. The bureaucrats can never think of allowing any one to have a pay package, which is equivalent to them. Pay packages are considered as tool to ‘show off’ importance in the society. First it was the Army personals that demanded a better package, & then it was the Oil PSU officers. If they keep on giving similar pay packages then, next time someone else would ask for a higher salary. By crushing the ‘strike’ with iron fist, they shot two birds with one stone. First a higher salary was denied to these officers & a message was sent to all others. Media was used as a weapon to demoralize the strikers. The words ‘Deshdrohi’, ‘terrorist’ Oil Babus’ sent a clear message that something fishy was happening behind the scene. I have never seen such false propaganda warfare ever in my life. How can a entry-level executive having a basic salary of 12000 Rs have a salary of 1, 00,000 Rs per month. It seemed media deliberately did not even tried to check the ground reality.

There after Politicians come in the scene. While they welcome there own emoluments by thumping the table, forget about the others whose technological knowledge is making this nation an upcoming power. The only thing they consider about is their vote bank. The media portrayed a wrong picture. The victim was portrayed as the convict. If the media showed realty, pressure would have been on government to act in a sensible manner. At my personal level I don’t endorse ‘strike’. But strike is the only option left with any workforce after all the means is exhausted in a democracy. The situation is similar to the current scenario between India & Pakistan. Pakistani terrorist attack Mumbai, all diplomacy fails & India attacks Pakistan. Whole world media accuses India of it atrocity. India under pressure from UN backs off. If war is considered unethical, similar is ‘Strike’. But you have to use it because nothing is left to do. 55,000 members may be insignificant to be considered as ‘Vote Bank’, but consider this as they contribute to 15% of the GDP. We are the one who bears the subsidy burden, so that a millionaire in his BMW doesn’t have to pay extra.

The appointment of Petroleum Secretary, R.S.Pandey has a very interesting story. After CPM left the coalition UPA government due to Nuclear deal, Congress took the support of SP on the condition that Petroleum ministry is given to them. The deal was settled with the appointment of Pandey as Petroleum Secretary, who is a representative of SP. Petroleum Ministry is considered as great source of revenue for party fund. Irony of the situation is that Anil Ambani is in SP. Mr. Panedy is the same person who travel executive class by air, stays in grand Hyaat, & given chauffer driven car, the bills to which are paid by ONGC. It is a known fact that Hon. Petroleum Minister Mr. Murli Deora is a family friend of Mukesh Ambani. Last but not the least comes in the picture are industrialist like Ambani brothers. Reliance Industry Ltd is a competitor of ONGC in the OIL & GAS industry. If salary of the employees of PSU Oil sector were increased, they would be forced to keep competitive salary in RIL. Because then only it would be possible for them to drain the best brain from ONGC. A whole lot of conspiracy is going on. ONGC spent 500 crores of rupees to develop the Panna Mukta & tapti oil & gas field, then also it was sold to Enron & Reliance in 1994. Whole deal was marred with controversy with accusation of kickbacks received by then Petroleum Ministry headed by Satish Sharma. Even a CBI inquiry was called in this matter.When ENRON got bankrupt, even ONGC made bid to take back their own field. But ENRON was hell-bent not to give the field back to ONGC. Finally the field was given to BG. These ‘goras’ showed their true color even after 50 yrs of independence. There are even other cases when ONGC fields were given to private parties.

What I mean to say is that after such repressive measures taken by Government & such a bad pay package, ONGC employees are bound to get demoralized. A demoralized workforce cannot give the best of their performance. Attrition rate would drastically increase, all being absorbed by the private players. Running an Oil & Gas field requires a lot nos. of technically sound people with years of experience. Attrition is going on at all level of employees. ONGC would then become a training ground for young executives. The performance of the company would get drastically reduced. Government would take this as an opportunity to sell the fields to private players like Reliance. The same employees who had left ONGC would work at the same place, but under Reliance. This is going to happen soon as the fields operated by ONGC have already crossed their plateau period. Now tell me “WHO IS DESHDROHI”.ONGC is working for energy security of the nation. It is buying assets all over the world. It is now a global name; it requires a well-experienced & talented workforce.

For that it has to have a competitive salary for its employees. ONGC is meant to serve the nation, not make profits. Last year it absorbed the subsidy burden of 22,000 crs so that petrol & diesel prices don’t go up. Amount given to exchequer was 31,000 crs , profit 17,000 crs. Then also spending in form of emoluments for employees were around 1% of total sales. These are same employees who work in mid sea away from their family, work under scorching heat in deserts, works in the chilling cold in the during the winter night , works under threats of terrorists. You can just imagine a situation when wind speed goes up to 50 knots in the monsoon at offshore. For every drop of Oil that is produced we profusely sweat. We are the true Patriots “DESHBHAKT”. WE ARE ONGC. Jai Hind.

After 50 years of independence we see powerful PSU only because of the far sightedness of the leaders of 50-60s. With the passage of time the people in the present government have forgot the ideology of those leaders and are trying to jolt the foundation of the PSUs. I had always voted for them since i had given the franchisee but I am giving a second thought now.Hope somebody will rise on the occasion to improve the present apathy.

asif
asif
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Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:42 pm