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Ukraine’s minister: incumbent and his rival bribe voters

Ukraine's interior minister has accused the incumbent president and a former premier of waging campaigns that involve bribing voters ahead of Sunday's presidential vote.

In a statement issued late Thursday, Arsen Avakov said that his ministry is looking into hundreds of claims that campaigners for President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko were offering money to voters who would promise to cast a ballot for their candidate.

He noted that about 60 percent of complaints about bribes refer to Poroshenko's campaign, and Tymoshenko's campaign accounts for the rest. Both campaigns have repeatedly denied the accusations.

Opinion polls show Poroshenko and Tymoshenko trailing comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who stars in a TV series about a teacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral.

Source: Fox News World

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T Mobile, Sprint face new FCC questions on tie-up

FILE PHOTO: A sign for a T-Mobile store is seen in Manhattan, New York
FILE PHOTO: A sign for a T-Mobile store is seen in Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 30, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

April 25, 2019

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp executives this week urged senior U.S. regulators to approve the proposed tie-up, saying the combined company would have the incentive to slash prices, according to a filing on Thursday.

At the meeting Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission officials questioned company executives about such issues as “submitted economic modeling, including how it is conservative in measuring benefits and pricing constraints,” according to a filing with the FCC from a lawyer for the companies.

“They also discussed their pricing commitments as well as the incentives for New T-Mobile to aggressively lower prices,” the letter said.

The carriers argued that customers with prepaid phone plans “would be among the biggest beneficiaries of the transaction.” They suggested that without the merger, T-Mobile and Sprint “will likely have to raise prices” because they “will lack the capacity to keep up with growing demand for wireless data.”

Congressional Democrats and consumer activists have objected to the $26 billion merger saying it will raise prices for wireless customers. Kathleen Ham, senior vice president for government affairs at T-Mobile, along with lawyers for both companies, met with FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry and other senior officials on Wednesday to answer questions about the deal.

If completed, the tie-up of the third- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless carriers would create a carrier with 127 million customers that would be a formidable competitor to the No. 1 wireless carrier Verizon Communications Inc and No. 2 AT&T Inc.

Last week, T-Mobile chief executive John Legere and Sprint executive chairman Marcelo Claure made the case for the deal to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.

In February, a group of eight Democratic senators and independent Senator Bernie Sanders urged the Justice Department and FCC to reject the deal, saying it could boost monthly bills as much as 10 percent.

Sources told Reuters last week that the Justice Department had concerns about the merger’s current structure. Legere met last week with the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, as the government’s review nears a conclusion, Reuters reported. A decision is likely by early June, people briefed on the matter said.

In October, shareholders for both companies approved the deal, struck in April 2018. It has also received national security clearance, but still needs approval from the Justice Department and FCC. A number of state attorneys general are also reviewing it.

To win support, T-Mobile had said it would not increase prices for three years and will offer 5G services at no additional charge.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Duke routs North Dakota State

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-First Round-Duke vs North Dakota State
Mar 22, 2019; Columbia, SC, USA; The Duke Blue Devils bench reacts during the second half against the North Dakota State Bison in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

March 23, 2019

RJ Barrett pumped in 26 points and Zion Williamson scored 25 points in their first NCAA Tournament game, and top-seeded Duke relied on a huge second half to dispatch No. 16 seed North Dakota State 85-62 on Friday night at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C.

Classmate Cam Reddish added 12 points as Duke won the East Region first-round game.

Williamson, competing in a college game in his home state for the first time, didn’t play in the final nine minutes after making 12 of 16 shots from the field. Barrett collected 14 rebounds.

Duke (30-5), which is in the tournament for the 24th consecutive year, meets the winner of Friday’s late game between Virginia Commonwealth and Central Florida in Sunday’s second round.

Vinnie Shahid scored 20 and reserve Jordan Horn added 11 for North Dakota State (19-16), which had never previously faced Duke. The Blue Devils improved to 14-0 against No. 16 seeds.

Williamson scored six points in Duke’s 9-0 spurt to begin the second half. That turned into a 19-5 stretch, draining much of the drama that might have still circulated.

Williamson had 13 points in the opening six minutes of the second half. Soon after, he was hopping for joy on Barrett’s reverse dunk in transition.

Duke led 31-27 at halftime despite Shahid’s15 points.

North Dakota State led 12-5. Williamson tallied 10 of Duke’s first 20 points, though the score was 20-16 through 15 minutes.

The Bison went up 25-24 before Duke posted the next seven points.

Duke center Marques Bolden was back in action after missing the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament with a knee injury. Wearing a brace on his left knee, he came off the bench and was the first substitute used by the Blue Devils.

Duke forward Jack White, a reserve forward and team captain, wasn’t in uniform because of a hamstring ailment.

North Dakota State was coming off Wednesday night’s 78-74 First Four victory against North Carolina Central in Dayton, Ohio. That gave the Bison a second NCAA Tournament victory all-time and prevented an all-Durham, N.C., matchup between NC Central and Duke.

–Field Level Media

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Venezuelans rally to protest chronic power outages

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido attends a rally in San Antonio
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who many nations have recognised as the country's rightful interim ruler, attends a rally in San Antonio, Venezuela, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

March 30, 2019

By Deisy Buitrago and Shaylim Valderrama

CARACAS (Reuters) – Thousands of Venezuelan opposition sympathizers protested on Saturday against recurring blackouts that crippled much of the country this month and have aggravated the OPEC nation’s economic and social crisis.

Electricity has slowly been restored following a blackout on Monday that left most of Venezuela’s 24 states without power. That followed a massive week-long national outage on March 7.

President Nicolas Maduro has said the situation was caused by “terrorist attacks” on the Guri hydroelectric dam that powers much of the country.

Critics including opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by most Western nations as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state, blame the electricity problems on corruption and mismanagement.

“We all know who is responsible for the blackout – Maduro,” Guaido said at a rally in the Caracas suburb of Los Teques on Saturday. “We must accelerate the process to remove this corrupt and thieving regime.”

Maduro has said Guaido is seeking to lead a coup against him, with the help of Washington.

The United States has levied crippling sanctions against Maduro’s government in efforts to push him from power, but he has hung on in large part thanks to continued loyalty by top military commanders.

He has also won diplomatic backing from Russia and China, which accuse Washington of meddling in the country’s affairs.

Government supporters also marched in Caracas on Saturday to protest against “imperialism” by the U.S. government, which Maduro accuses of causing the blackouts by attacking generation and transmission systems.

“It’s easy to see that (Guaido) doesn’t understand the country’s situation,” said Antonio Ponce, 56, a bus driver. “He’s been put there by the ultra-right, he doesn’t even know what he’s asking for.”

The outages have left hospitals without power, worsened the already precarious supply of drinking water and left many stores without functioning point-of-sale terminals – which are crucial in the hyperinflationary economy where cash is in short supply.

“Enough of all this humiliation, we do not deserve to live like this,” complained Yuderkis Varela, 46, in the western city of San Cristobal near the border with Colombia. “We don’t have power, we don’t have water, we don’t have gas.”

After Monday’s outage, the government shuttered businesses for three days and schools for four.

The blackout also halted operations at the main oil export terminal of Jose, which had restarted operations by Friday.

(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Shaylim Valderrama, Additional reporting by Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal; Writing by Diego Oré; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

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Baby blown into Black Sea, mother jumps in, passerby dives in to save both

Strong winds in Ukraine blew a baby stroller - and the 3-year-old strapped in it - into the choppy waters of the Black Sea Monday, prompting a hectic scene when the mother jumped in to save her child and a passerby dove in to rescue both.

The incident took place near Odessa's Arcadia beach during a time when the Eastern European country was being battered by hurricane-like winds which tore roofs off buildings and uprooted trees.

3 UKRANIAN POLICE INJURED IN CLASH WITH DEMONSTRATORS 

Passerby Vasily Buscharov, from Odessa, told BBC Ukraine he saw a man remove his clothes and dive into water about 10-feet deep. Thirty seconds later, he saw a woman, still wearing a long black coat pushed back up on the pier. Seconds later, the child followed. The stroller, though, ended up sinking to the bottom.

It is unknown why the mother or child were standing near the water. Their identities have not been released.

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Bad weather has been battering the region. Close to 540 towns and villages in Ukraine lost electricity after strong winds pummeled power lines. The weather has also led to the deaths of three people and caused widespread property damage.

Source: Fox News World

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Chief: Family DNA leads police to mother who abandoned baby

Authorities in South Carolina say DNA submitted to family genealogy sites led them to find and arrest the mother of a baby who was born alive then died abandoned inside a box in a vacant field 29 years ago.

Greenville police Chief Ken Miller says the DNA led them to the probable father of the 6.5-pound (3-kilogram) baby called Julie Valentine.

Miller said at a news conference Thursday that the father named Brook Graham as the baby's likely mother. She was arrested late Wednesday and charged with homicide by neglect.

Authorities say the 53-year-old Graham has two grown children.

Miller says the baby was discovered in February 1990 wrapped in newspaper and bedding in a box by a man picking Valentine's Day flowers for his wife.

Jail records didn't indicate if Graham had a lawyer.

Source: Fox News National

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McIlroy wins Players Championship by one stroke in Florida

PGA: THE PLAYERS Championship - Final Round
Mar 17, 2019; Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, USA; Rory McIlroy plays his shot from the 18th tee during the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass - Stadium Course. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

March 17, 2019

(Reuters) – Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy emerged as the last man standing in a wild final round to win the Players Championship by one shot from American Jim Furyk in Ponte Vedra, Florida on Sunday.

McIlroy overcame an early double-bogey to card two-under-par 70 in a testing breeze at TPC Sawgrass.

A tap-in birdie at the par-five 16th gave him the lead and he parred the final two holes to finish at 16-under 272.

(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Ken Ferris)

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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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