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At least 14 lined up and killed after gunmen ambush bus in Pakistan, officials say

At least 14 people were lined up and executed in southwestern Pakistan after gunmen ambushed a bus and forced the passengers onto a highway early Thursday, officials said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Prime Minister Imran Khan has condemned the attack in restive Baluchistan province as "an act of terror."

The attack took place as the bus was traveling on the Makran coastal highway between the port city of Karachi and the Gwadar port in the southwest, local official Jehangir Dashti told The Associated Press. He said that the passengers targeted in the attack were killed after the assailants checked their identity cards.

US OFFICIALS SEEK EXTRADITION OF MURDER SUSPECT IN PAKISTAN

"In this tragic incident, 14 passengers were forced off the bus, they were lined up in a nearby open area and killed by the terrorists," Dashti said. The identities of the slain were not immediately clear.

Security forces from the nearby town of Buzi Top were dispatched and had reached the area, about 375 miles from the provincial capital, Quetta, he added.

In his statement, Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered authorities "to make every possible effort to identify and to bring the perpetrators of the barbaric act to justice."

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Separatists have for years waged a low-level insurgency in oil-rich Baluchistan, complaining of discrimination and demanding a fairer share of the province's resources and wealth.

Other militant groups also operate in Baluchistan. Last Friday, a suicide bomber targeted an open-air market in Quetta, killing 20 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Man charged with murder in overdose death of ailing wife

A Minnesota man accused of removing his ailing wife from a care center, taking her home and holding what he described as a "death party" before she died has been charged with murder.

Fifty-eight-year-old Duane Johnson had been charged with criminal neglect in the January death of his wife, Debra Lynn Johnson, at their home in Searles. Brown County prosecutors have now added a third-degree murder charge.

Prosecutors say Johnson told investigators he was fulfilling a promise to his wife that he would not let her die in a nursing home when he removed her from a transitional care facility against medical advice.

Authorities say Johnson told them he gave some methamphetamine to his wife because she wanted to party before her death.

A criminal complaint says the 69-year-old woman died of a methamphetamine overdose.

Source: Fox News National

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Robert Mueller's Russia investigation by the numbers

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign concluded with the final report submitted to the Justice Department this past Friday. In a letter released Sunday, Attorney General William Barr publicly revealed the "principal conclusions" and more about the under-wraps investigation.

Just months after President Trump was inaugurated into office, Mueller was appointed to the special counsel's office on May, 17 2017. In total, it lasted close to two years — 675 days, or one year, 10 months and six days, to be exact.

READ THE MUELLER REPORT FINDINGS

The intent of the investigation was to determine whether Trump and his campaign illegally worked with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel's office determined that it "did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia."

The president on Sunday responded to Mueller's report in two different ways. Speaking to reporters, Trump called the investigation "an illegal takedown that failed."

He also tweeted: "No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!" It was Trump's 78th tweet regarding the probe, excluding retweets.

In total, 19 attorneys worked with the special counsel's office at some point during the nearly two-year-long probe, which, between May 2017 and September 2018, spent $25.2 million. Of that, $12.3 million was direct spending, while $12.9 million was spent on "indirect" component expenses for the Justice Department.

The special counsel's office has said that the indirect expenses don't amount to additional taxpayer expenditures since those resources — especially personnel, such as employees of the FBI or other agencies — would have been devoted to other cases had there been no special-counsel investigation.

During the investigation, at least 42 people were interviewed by Mueller or his team or testified before a grand jury, and 34 people -- in addition to 3 companies -- either have been indicted or have pleaded guilty in connection to the probe.

Of the 34, 6 were former advisers or associates of Trump, while 2 were not considered Trump advisers or associates. Additionally, 26 Russians have been charged.

Mueller's office worked with a team of "approximately 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff" during the investigation.

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Ultimately, the special counsel's office "issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records, issued almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses," according to Barr's letter.

On Friday evening, Mueller submitted his report to Barr, marking the end of the politically explosive probe and the beginning of a new battle over its contents and implications.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Colombia gets $31.5 million grant to aid Venezuelan migrants

FILE PHOTO: Police guard the tents of a temporary camp for Venezuelan refugees in Bogota
FILE PHOTO: Police guard the tents of a temporary camp for Venezuelan refugees in Bogota, Colombia November 19, 2018. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez/File Photo

April 12, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A refugee fund set up by the World Bank, the United Nations and the Islamic Development Bank on Friday approved a $31.5 million grant for Colombia to aid Venezuelan migrants and refugees.

The Global Concessional Financing Facility grant provides budget support to Colombia as it works to facilitate access to jobs and basic social services to improve the migrants’ lives, the World Bank said. The grant will aid the communities hosting the migrants.

“These non-reimbursable resources will help finance the significant fiscal effort Colombia is making to host and help the Venezuelan migrants in the best way possible.”

The concessional funding is part of a $750 million development policy financing package being prepared by the World Bank to support Colombia’s fiscal sustainability, economic competitiveness and migration challenges.

Specific policy measures include efforts to regularize the status of over 260,000 migrants.

The World Bank estimates that about 3.7 million people have left Venezuela in recent years, and more than 1.2 million migrants and refugees from Venezuela are now living in Colombia.

The influx of migrants and refugees to Colombia has put a severe strain on the country’s economy and social services such as healthcare. The annual cost of hosting the migrants, not including infrastructure and facilities, is currently estimated at around 0.4 percent of GDP, according to the Bank.

“The massive and rapid migration from Venezuela presents an unprecedented humanitarian and development challenge for the region today,” World Bank Latin America vice president Axel van Trotsenburg, said in a statement. “We need to act now to ensure that the migrants from Venezuela and their hosts get the support they need.”

The Global Concessional Financing Facility was launched in 2016 as a response to large numbers of refugees fleeing Syria to Jordan and Lebanon. In two years, the facility has approved $500 million in grants that have unlocked $2.5 billion in concessional financing for development projects aiming to improve the lives of refugees and their host communities.The fund said contributions for the Colombian grant came from Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and Britain.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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Japan’s MUFG considers scaling back overseas markets division: sources

FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a signboard of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and MUFG Bank at its headquarters in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a signboard of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and MUFG Bank at its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

April 9, 2019

TOKYO (Reuters) – Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is considering scaling back its bond and equity sales and trading operations in London and New York, as part of a broader restructuring of its global markets division, two sources said on Tuesday.

MUFG, Japan’s biggest bank by assets, will also overhaul its Japanese equity business at home and overseas. The move comes after Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings last week said it would cut $1 billion in costs from its wholesale business and shut domestic retail branches.

MUFG has yet to finalize the plans, the sources said, declining to be identified because the information was not yet public. The size of the likely reductions was not clear. It was also not clear how many people were employed in the those divisions.

A representative for MUFG said the bank was progressing in its structural reform plans, but declined to comment further.

(Reporting by Taro Fuse; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

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Memo Pins Marines' Readiness, Budget Woes on Border Duty

The commandant of the Marine Corps expressed his concern regarding the service's budget last month because of hurricane relief efforts, the presidential order that sent troops to the southern border, and other factors.

Gen. Robert Neller wrote two memos to Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer and Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan that outlined the budget challenges the Marines are facing in the current fiscal year. The Los Angeles Times published copies of them.

Included on a list of "unplanned and unbudgeted factors" was Operation Faithful Patriot, the name of the ongoing military operations at America's border with Mexico to help shore up the border and slow down the flow of illegal immigration.

"Unplanned/unbudgeted Southwest Border Operations" was the third item on the list.

An "Unplanned/unbudgeted civilian pay raise" was also listed.

The internal memos indicated the border deployment, ordered by President Donald Trump last fall, is putting a strain on the military. Neller wrote, because of the budgetary challenges, several planned training exercises, some with foreign militaries, were canceled.

Neller concluded canceling the exercises will negatively impact "combat readiness," "strengthened alliances and partnerships," and the "solvency of the Marine Corps."

Source: NewsMax America

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Southern Poverty Law Center urges teachers to lecture 1st graders about ‘microaggressions,’ structural racism

The Southern Poverty Law Center wants to have a talk with first graders, about microaggressions, stereotypes and systemic racism.

“What is this doing in my inbox?” Tyler O’Neil, editor for PJ Media, posted to Twitter Friday. “The Southern Poverty Law Center wants your first graders to learn about microaggressions. Yes, they’re already struggling to be nice to each other, but the SPLC wants them to tackle structural racism in first grade.”

O’Neil included a clip from his email inbox featuring a message from the SPLC about “Teaching first-graders about microaggressions.”

The news site reports the email linked to an essay from Oakland, California teacher Bret Turner titled “Teaching First-Graders About Microaggressions: The Small Moments Add Up.”

The missive is published by Teaching Tolerance, a nonprofit that focuses on providing “free resources” to educators on a mission of “social justice and anti-bias.” “The anti-bias approach encourages children and young people to challenge prejudice and learn how to be agents of change in their own lives,” according to the site.

Turner explained that first-graders are “in the thick of learning to read and write” as well as “learning how to communicate with others,” making it the perfect time to introduce the concepts of racism, bias, and injustice.


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Kids tease each other, it’s part of their development, but “not all unkindness is the same,” according to Turner.

“It can be particularly detrimental when the hurtful language relates to race, gender, religion or other aspects of a child’s identity,” Turner wrote. “These are microaggressions: small, subtle, sometimes-unintended acts of discrimination.”

It’s a teacher’s job to hyper focus kids on their unintentional racism and other unconscious prejudices, but it’s not as simple as a classroom chat or one-on-one conversation. There’s groundwork, Turner advised.

“Before talking with students about microaggressions, it’s essential to establish an identity-safe classroom. Students need to feel safe and supported. In my class, when we do discuss microaggressions, I remind students of conversations we’ve already had about representation,” he wrote.

“I remind them that, when we’re reading together, we always ask, ‘Whose story is being told here?’ I also reference the discussions we’ve had around more overt racism: how being called a racist may hurt, but it doesn’t compare to actually experiencing racism.”

It’s all about equipping 6-year-olds with the “tools, vocabulary and context” to call out their classmates when they unintentionally use biased language or engage in politically incorrect behavior.

Source: InfoWars

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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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