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Vizio wants next-generation smart TVs to target ads to households

FILE PHOTO: A visitor uses a remote control as she looks at television programmes during the annual MIPCOM television programme market in Cannes
FILE PHOTO: A visitor uses a remote control as she looks at television programmes during the annual MIPCOM television programme market in Cannes, southeastern France, October 4, 2010. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

March 12, 2019

By Sheila Dang

(Reuters) – Smart TV manufacturer Vizio has formed a partnership with nine media and advertising companies to develop an industry standard that will allow smart TVs to target advertisements to specific households, the companies said Tuesday.

The consortium includes major TV networks like Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal and CBS Corp, as well as advertising technology companies like AT&T Inc’s Xandr.

Addressable advertising, or targeting viewers on the household level based on their interests, has long been the goal of TV marketers. But TVs lack cookies that internet browsers use to allow ads to follow people around the web. And TV manufacturers have so far used different technology and standards to enable addressable advertising, hindering the industry’s growth, said Jodie McAfee, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Inscape, a subsidiary of Vizio.

“It creates a level of complication for (TV networks), and scale is critical,” he said in an interview.

Privacy advocates have voiced concerns that targeted advertising may invade privacy and the information gathered could be misused or hacked.

The consortium of companies, dubbed Project OAR, or Open Addressable Ready, hopes to define the technical standards for TV programmers and platforms to deliver addressable advertising on smart TVs, which are WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for services like Netflix Inc and Hulu, by the end of this year, McAfee said.

The consortium will need to decide on aspects like the technology to switch out ads and serve them to specific households, as well how it should be built, McAfee said.

While Inscape, which specializes in smart TV data, will build the technology, it will be an open standard, meaning any TV manufacturer or connected-device company will be able to integrate the standard in their products.

Vizio, which initiated the conversations with the nine partners, has committed to using the standard in its future TV models.

The California-based company is the second-largest smart TV brand with 16 percent of the North American market in 2018, according to information and analytics firm IHS Markit, behind Samsung which has 29 percent market share.

(Reporting by Sheila Dang; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: OANN

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New Zealand, Red Cross at odds over naming captive nurse

New Zealand's government did not approve an aid agency's decision to release the name of a New Zealand nurse held captive by the Islamic State group in Syria, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters said an International Committee of the Red Cross official's claim to have acted with New Zealand's agreement was "balderdash." He said New Zealand opposed any steps that might endanger 62-year-old midwife and nurse Louisa Akavi or impede her location and release.

"That's a very polite way of describing how one person has, in my view, dropped the ball so to speak," Peters said.

The ICRC said it believed it had New Zealand's support for its decision to allow the New York Times on Sunday to publish the name and nationality Akavi, who was taken prisoner in northwest Syria in 2013.

Ever since her capture, successive New Zealand governments and the ICRC maintained an agreement with international media to keep secret the nurse's name and nationality.

New Zealand feared naming Akavi would make her a high profile captive, more likely to be executed by her captors for propaganda. More recently ISIS has vowed to avenge a March 15 attack that left 50 dead at two mosques in New Zealand and Akavi's nationality could make her a target for retribution.

ICRC director of operations Dominik Stillhart said he believed the agency had acted with New Zealand's agreement.

"We would not have made that decision without the support of the New Zealand Government," he said.

The aid group reasoned that with the collapse of the Islamic State group, naming Akavi would raise the chance of receiving news of her whereabouts and those of the two Syrian drivers kidnapped with her.

The agency said it had received information that Akavi may have been seen alive as recently as December.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday indicated her disappointment with the ICRC's decision to release the nurse's name and also said the government had not given its blessing to reveal that information.

Peters said he didn't want to get engaged in a dispute with the ICRC and have the search for Akavi detoured by it.

He said New Zealand had shared information with the ICRC throughout Akavi's captivity and there had been times when rescue teams had come close to the location at which she was being held.

"The fact of the matter is we went there looking for someone in the most extremely difficult, changing circumstances and we've never given up hope and we're not giving up hope now," he said.

Source: Fox News World

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U.S. judge may force Trump administration to reunite more families separated at Mexico border

A group of Central American migrants stand on U.S. soil, south of the U.S.-Mexico border fence, waiting to surrender to U.S. Border Patrol Agents in El Paso
A group of Central American migrants stand on U.S. soil, south of the U.S.-Mexico border fence, waiting to surrender to U.S. Border Patrol Agents in El Paso, Texas, U.S., March 5, 2019. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

March 9, 2019

(Reuters) – In a blow to the Trump administration’s U.S.-Mexico border strategy, a federal court judge in California has expanded the number of migrant families separated at the border that the government may be required to reunite.

San Diego-based U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw late on Friday issued a preliminary ruling that would potentially expand by thousands the number of migrants included in a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Sabraw already ordered the Trump administration last year to reunite more than 2,800 migrant children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy.

But he will allow more separated families to join the class-action lawsuit after a report released in January by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General, which identified potentially thousands more families that had been separated as early as July 1, 2017. The administration’s “zero tolerance” policy did not take effect until May 2018.

“The hallmark of a civilized society is measured by how it treats its people and those within its borders,” Sabraw said in his ruling.

Sabraw said that report was “a significant development in this case” and its contents “are undisputed.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump implemented the zero-tolerance policy to criminally prosecute and jail all illegal border crossers – even those traveling with their children – which led to a wave of separations last year.

The policy sparked outrage when it became public, and the backlash led Trump to sign an executive order reversing course on June 20, 2018.

The IG report said prior to the officially announced zero-tolerance policy, the government began ramping up separations in 2017 for other reasons related to a child’s safety and well-being, including separating parents with criminal records or lack of proper documents.

A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said in January after the IG report came out that the practice of separating apprehended minors from adults to protect the interests of the children has been standard practice “for more than a decade.”

The report also said more than 100 minors, including more than two dozen under age 5, were separated after the President’s executive order.

“The court made clear that potentially thousands of children’s lives are at stake and that the Trump administration cannot simply ignore the devastation it has caused,” Lee Gelernt, ACLU lead attorney in the class-action family separation lawsuit, said on Friday.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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Lumber Liquidators paying $33M to settle US fraud charges

Lumber Liquidators is paying $33 million to settle fraud charges by federal authorities who accused the company of falsely saying its Chinese-made laminate flooring met formaldehyde emissions standards.

The Toano, Virginia-based company is one of the biggest retailers of flooring products in the U.S. Its settlements of criminal and civil fraud charges, related to statements it made in 2015, were announced Tuesday by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under an agreement, the Justice Department will defer prosecution of Lumber Liquidators and dismiss the charges after three years on condition the company takes remedial actions.

Lumber Liquidators CEO Dennis Knowles said in a statement the company has made sweeping changes "and will continue to take steps with the new executive team to better Lumber Liquidators."

Source: Fox News National

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Calf. Gov. Newsom Can't Recall Why he Said Trump Should Quit

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he can’t even remember why he called on President Donald Trump to resign.

“That was during a campaign,” the Democrat told The New York Times. “It’s just so indicative of this moment, I couldn't even tell you. It was 4,623 tweets ago.”

Newsom said he is now looking to have a productive relationship with the president.

“I hope so,” Newsom told the newspaper. “I don’t know. But I’m pursuing that because it’s just too damn important. And the risks are too great to bear.”

The Hill noted a review of Newsom’s comments from January 2018 showed he strongly had objected to Trump reportedly using a vile term to describe several African nations, as well on Haiti and El Salvador. Trump had denied eyewitness accounts that he had used the term.

The Times said Newsom had called the president “a joke and a racist” back then.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Boxing: Wilder to defend WBC title against Breazeale in May

FILE PHOTO: Deontay Wilder v Tyson Fury - WBC World Heavyweight Title
FILE PHOTO: Boxing - Deontay Wilder v Tyson Fury - WBC World Heavyweight Title - Staples Centre, Los Angeles, United States - December 1, 2018 Deontay Wilder reacts after knocking down Tyson Fury Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge/File Photo

March 19, 2019

(Reuters) – WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder will put his title on the line against fellow American Dominic Breazeale at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in May, both camps said on Tuesday.

Wilder (39-0-1), who fought to a split decision draw against Briton Tyson Fury in Los Angeles on Dec. 1, will face the 20-1 Breazeale on May 18.

Last December, Breazeale stopped Carlos Negron of Puerto Rico in the ninth round and is the WBC’s mandatory challenger.

“It’s always a great thing to get the mandatories out of the way because I consider the mandatories like flies — they are always buzzing in your ear,” Wilder, known as the Bronze Bomber, said at a media conference.

Breazeale, whose only loss was to WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO champion Anthony Joshua in 2016, added he was looking forward to try and silence his fellow 33-year-old.

“I’m excited to finally get this chump in the ring,” he said. “You love your own voice. All you do is talk and talk and talk.

“It’s time to get into the ring and square off.”

(Reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

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Canada court orders fresh look into Trudeau visit to Aga Khan’s island

FILE PHOTO: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a Liberal Party caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa
FILE PHOTO: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a Liberal Party caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, April 2, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo

April 16, 2019

OTTAWA (Reuters) – A federal judge has ordered Canada’s lobbying commissioner to reconsider a probe into whether the Aga Khan broke the rules by inviting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s family to vacation on his private island at a time when his foundation was registered to lobby Trudeau’s office.

Canada’s previous lobbying commissioner declined to investigate a public complaint about the matter in 2017, saying that since the Aga Khan was not paid by his foundation, his offer of a luxury Caribbean vacation could not be seen as lobbying.

The Canadian prime minister was separately found to have broken ethics rules by accepting the vacation, though he did not face any penalties.

Trudeau has said that the Aga Khan is a close family friend.

Democracy Watch, a democracy reform advocacy group, challenged former Commission of Lobbying Karen Shepherd’s decision.

In a recently released ruling, Federal Court Justice Patrick Gleeson agreed that Shepherd’s scope was too narrow, quashing her decision not to probe the issue further. But he declined to order Canada’s new lobbying commissioner, Nancy Bélanger, to launch a formal investigation, instead returning the matter to her for reconsideration.

A renewed probe could revive a scandal that haunted Trudeau for months, with opposition politicians calling the luxury trip inappropriate and painting the prime minister as an out-of-touch elite.

When asked about the matter by reporters on Tuesday, Trudeau said: “We trust in the processes in place and respect the work that the court and the lobbying commissioner will do.”

Trudeau has said he has known the Aga Khan, Prince Shah Karim Al Husseini, since childhood. He and his family visited the billionaire philanthropist’s private island in the Bahamas in late 2016 and early 2017.

The ruling comes just months ahead of a federal election in Canada and as Trudeau is embroiled in another scandal over alleged interference in a corporate corruption case.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa, editing by G Crosse)

Source: OANN

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Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London
Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London, Britain, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

LONDON (Reuters) – Irish rockers The Cranberries are saying goodbye with their final album released on Friday, a poignant tribute to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan who died last year.

“In the End” is the eighth studio album from the band that rose to fame in the early 1990s with hits likes “Zombie” and “Linger”, and includes the final recordings by O’Riordan, who drowned in a London hotel bath in January 2018 due to alcohol intoxication.

Work on the album began during a 2017 tour and by that winter, O’Riordan and guitarist Neil Hogan had penned and demoed 11 tracks.

With O’Riordan’s vocals recorded, Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler completed the album in tribute to her.

“When we realized how strong the songs were, that was the deciding factor really… There was no point… trying to ruin the legacy of the band,” Noel Hogan said in an interview.

“It was obvious that Dolores wanted this album done because when you hear the album, you hear the songs and how strong they are, and she was very, very excited to get in and record this.”

The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1989 with another singer. O’Riordan replaced him a year later and the group went on to become Ireland’s best-selling rock band after U2, selling more than 40 million records.

O’Riordan, known for her strong distinctive voice singing about relationships or political violence, was 46 when she died.

“She was actually in quite a good place mentally. She was feeling quite content and strong and looking forward to a new phase of her life,” Lawler said.

“A lot of the lyrics in this album are about things ending… people might read into it differently but it was a phase of her personal life that she was talking about.”

The group previously announced their intention to split after the release of “In The End”.

“We are absolutely gutted we can’t play (the songs) live because that’s something that’s been a massive part of this band from day one,” Noel Hogan said.

“A few people have said to us about maybe even doing a one off where you have different vocalists… as kind of guests of ours. A year ago that’s definitely something we weren’t going to entertain but I don’t know, I think it’s something we need to go away and take time off for the summer and have a think about.”

Critics have generally given positive reviews of the album; NME described it as “(seeing) the band’s career go full-circle” while the Irish Times called it “an unexpected late career high and a remarkable swan song for O’Riordan”.

Their early songs still play on the radio. This week, “Dreams” was performed at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Londonderry last week as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

“We wrote them as kids, as a hobby and 30 years later they are on radio and on TV, like all the time… That’s far more than any of us ever thought we would have,” Noel Hogan said.

“That would make Dolores really happy because she was very precious about those songs. Her babies, she called them and to have that hopefully long after we’re gone… that’s all any band can wish for.”

(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; additoinal reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill Friday that offers new protections for U.S. military families facing unsafe housing, following a series of Reuters reports revealing squalid conditions in privately managed base homes.

The Reuters reports and later Congressional hearings detailed widespread hazards including lead paint exposure, vermin infestations, collapsing ceilings, mold and maintenance lapses in privatized base housing communities that serve some 700,000 U.S. military family members.

(View Warren’s military housing bill here. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dy5aht)

(Read Reuters’ Ambushed at Home series on military housing here. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military)

The Massachusetts Democrat’s bill would mandate both regular and unannounced spot inspections of base homes by certified, independent inspectors, holding landlords accountable for quickly fixing hazards. The military’s privatization program for years allowed real estate firms to operate base housing with scant oversight, Reuters found, leaving some tenants in unsafe homes with little recourse against landlords.

The bill would also require the Department of Defense and its private housing operators to publish reports annually detailing housing conditions, tenant complaints, maintenance response times and the financial incentives companies receive at each base. The provisions aim to enhance transparency of housing deals whose finances and operations the military had allowed to remain largely confidential under a privatization program since the late 1990s.

The measure would also require private landlords to cover moving costs for at-risk families, and healthcare costs for people with medical conditions resulting from unsafe base housing, ensuring they receive continuing coverage even after they leave the homes or the military.

“This bill will eliminate the kind of corner-cutting and neglect the Defense Department should never have let these private housing partners get away with in the first place,” Warren said in a statement Friday.

The proposed legislation comes after February Senate hearings where Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, slammed private real estate firms for endangering service families, and sought answers about why military branches weren’t providing more oversight.

Her legislation would direct the Defense Department to allow local housing code enforcers onto federal bases, following concerns they were sometimes denied access. Warren’s office said a companion bill in the House of Representatives would be introduced by Rep. Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico.

In response to the housing crisis, military branches are developing a tenant bill of rights and hiring hundreds of new housing staff. The branches recently dispatched commanders to survey base housing worldwide for safety hazards, resulting in thousands of work orders and hundreds of tenants being moved. The Defense Department has pledged to renegotiate its 50-year contracts with private real estate firms.

Congress has been quick to take its own measures. Earlier legislation proposed by senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California, along with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would compel base commanders to withhold rent payments and incentive fees from the private ventures if they allow home hazards to persist.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

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FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

(Reuters) – Deloitte quit as Ferrexpo’s auditor on Friday, knocking its shares by more than 20 percent, days after saying it was unable to conclude whether the iron ore miner’s CEO controlled a charity being investigated over its use of company donations.

Blooming Land, which coordinates Ferrexpo’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, came under scrutiny after auditors found holes in the charity’s statements.

Ferrexpo on Tuesday said findings of an ongoing independent investigation launched in February indicated some Blooming Land funds could have been “misappropriated”. It did not provide any details or publish its findings.

Shares in Ferrexpo, the third largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry, were 23.4 percent lower at 206.1 pence at 1022 GMT following news of Deloitte’s resignation.

“Ferrexpo’s shares are deeply discounted vs peers … following the resignation of Deloitte, we expect downside risks to dominate Ferrexpo’s shares near term.” JP Morgan analyst Dominic O’Kane said in a note on Friday.

Swiss-headquartered Ferrexpo did not provide a reason for the resignation of Deloitte, which declined to comment, while Blooming Land did not respond to a request for comment.

Funding for Blooming Land’s CSR activities is provided by one of Ferrexpo’s units in Ukraine and Khimreaktiv LLC, an entity ultimately controlled by Ferrexpo’s CEO and majority owner Kostyantin Zhevago, Ferrexpo said on Tuesday.

Ferrexpo’s board has found that Zhevago did not have significant influence or control over the charity, but Deloitte said it was unable reach a conclusion on this.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

In a qualified opinion, a statement addressing an incomplete audit, Deloitte said it had been unable to conclude whether $33.5 million of CSR donations to Blooming Land between 2017 and 2018 was used for “legitimate business payments for charitable purposes”.

Deloitte said on Tuesday that total CSR payments made to Blooming Land by Ferrexpo since 2013 total about $110 million.

Ferrexpo, whose major mines are in Ukraine, has said that the investigation was ongoing and new evidence pointed to potential discrepancies.

Zhevago, 45, who ranked 1,511 on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires for 2019 with a net worth of $1.4 billion, owns the FC Vorskla soccer club and has been a member of Ukraine’s parliament since 1998.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Bernard Orr)

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Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

JOHANNESBURG/LUANDA (Reuters) – Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday.

The cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) when it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros.

It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the impoverished nation, causing devastating floods and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.

The World Food Programme warned that Kenneth could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days – twice that brought by Cyclone Idai.

One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado (COE) said in a statement, while another person was injured.

In rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in “overcrowded” shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said.

There were also reports of a large number of homes and some infrastructure destroyed in Macomia district, a mainland district adjacent to Ibo.

A local group, the Friends of Pemba Association, had earlier reported that they could not reach people in Muidumbe, a district further inland.

Mark Lowcock, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned the storm could require another major humanitarian operation in Mozambique.

“Cyclone Kenneth marks the first time two cyclones have made landfall in Mozambique during the same season, further stressing the government’s limited resources,” he said in a statement.

FLOOD WARNINGS

Shaquila Alberto, owner of the beach-front Messano Flower Lodge in Macomia, said there were many fallen trees there, and in rural areas people’s homes had been damaged. Some areas of nearby Pemba had no power.

“Even my workers, they said the roof and all the things fell down,” she said by phone.

Further south, in Pemba, Elton Ernesto, a receptionist at Raphael’s Hotel, said there were fallen trees but not too much damage. The hotel had power and water, he said, while phones rang in the background. “The rain has stopped,” he added.

However Michael Charles, an official for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said heavy rains over the next few days were likely to bring a “second wave of destruction” in the form of flooding.

“The houses are not all solid, and the topography is very sandy,” Charles said.

In the days after Cyclone Idai, heavy inland rains prompted rivers to burst their banks, submerging entire villages, cutting areas off from aid and ruining crops. There were concerns the same could happen again in northern Mozambique.

Before Kenneth hit, the government and aid workers moved around 30,000 people to safer buildings such as schools, however authorities said that around 680,000 people were in the path of the storm.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer; Writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alexandra Zavis)

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A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai
FILE PHOTO: A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Surging global oil prices will pose a first big challenge to India’s new government, whoever wins an election now under way, especially as domestic prices have been allowed to lag, meaning consumers are in for a painful surge as they catch up.

For oil-import dependent India, higher global prices could lead to a weaker rupee, higher inflation, the ruling out of interest rate cuts and could further weigh on twin current account and budget deficits, economists warned.

But compounding the future pain, state-run fuel suppliers and retailers have held off passing on to consumers the higher prices during a staggered general election, which began on April 11 and ends on May 23, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That delay is expected to be unwound once the election is over. And there could be additional price increases to make up for losses or profits missed during the period of delayed increases, the sources said.

In some major Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, pump prices are adjusted periodically so they move largely in tandem with international crude prices.

That was what was supposed to happen in India but the election means there have been many days when pump prices have been unchanged.

In New Delhi, for example, while crude oil prices have gone up by nearly $9 a barrel, or about 12 percent, in the past six weeks, gasoline prices have only risen by 0.47 rupees a liter, or 0.6 percent.

State-controlled fuel suppliers and retailers declined to say why they had delayed price increases, or discuss whether there has been any pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A government spokesman declined to comment.

The opposition Congress party said Modi’s government was violating its own policy of daily price revision by advising the state oil companies to hold prices steady.

“The government should cut fuel taxes otherwise consumers will have to pay much higher oil prices once the elections are over,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Congress party.

(GRAPHIC: India Polls: Fuel price hike lags crude surge – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XLlxik)

Nitin Goyal, treasurer at the All India Petroleum Dealers Association, representing fuel stations in 25 states, said prices were similarly held down for 19 days in the southern state of Karnataka last year, when it held state assembly elections.

Only for them to surge after the vote.

“Consumers should be ready for a rude shock of a massive jump in retail prices, similar to the level we have seen in the Karnataka state election,” Goyal said.

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at Singapore-based consultancy FGE, said retail prices of gasoline and gasoil prices would have been up to 6 percent, or about 4 rupee, higher if they had been allowed to rise in line with global prices.

“Indian pump prices have failed to keep up with the recent uptrend in crude prices,” Paravaikkarasu said.

“With the country’s general elections underway, the incumbent government has been keeping pump prices relatively unchanged.”

India had switched to a daily price revision in June 2017 from a revision every two weeks, as the government allowed retailers to set prices.

But the government faced protests last October when retailers raised prices by up to 10 rupees a liter after the crude oil price went above $80 a barrel, forcing it to cut fuel taxes.

Global prices rose to their highest level in 2019 on Thursday, days after the United States announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers including India to stop buying Tehran’s oil. [O/R]

Higher oil prices will mean Asia’s third largest economy is likely to see growth of less than 7 percent rate this fiscal year, economists said. Growth slowed to 6.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the slowest in five quarters.

Rating agency CARE has warned that a 10 percent rise in global oil prices could increase demand for dollars, putting pressure on the rupee and widening the current account deficit.

India’s oil import bill rose by nearly one-third in the fiscal year ending March 31 to $140.5 billion, against $108 billion the previous year.

“The increase in international oil prices is a credit negative for the Indian economy,” ICRA, the Indian arm of the Fitch rating agency, said in a note.

“Every $10/ bbl increase in crude oil prices increases the fiscal deficit by about 0.1 percent of GDP.”

Any big price rise would also build a case for the central bank to keep rates steady, or even raise them.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which cut the benchmark policy repo rate by 25 basis points this month, warned that rising oil and food prices could push up inflation.

Policymakers are worried that a sustained increase in the oil price in the range of $70-75/barrel or higher can move the rupee down by 3-4 percent on an annual basis.

The rupee has depreciated by 1.24 percent against the dollar since a year high in mid-March.

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Martin Howell and Rob Birsel)

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