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American extradited to Australia charged with gruesome bound and gag murder

Australian police charged a man for the murder of a Thai national, whose body was found bound and gagged on the side of a road in Sydney, Australia, according to ABC News.

Alex Dion, 38, was extradited from the United States to Australia under the supervision of armed guards and charged with the 2018 murder of Wachira "Mario" Phetmang upon arrival.

ABC News says a truck driver found Phetmang's body bound, wrapped in plastic and covered in a mattress protector last June. The gruesome autopsy showed he was on the receiving end of more than 20 wounds to his head, which produced multiple skull fractures.

AT LEAST 2 WOUNDED IN SHOOTING AT AUSTRALIA NIGHTCLUB

An arrest warrant was issued for Dion in September while he was already in police custody for a separate domestic violence charge in San Diego.

Phetmang, 33, was last seen alive on May 25 at a petrol station in the Sydney suburb of South Hurstville. He was a former cafe and spa worker who had been living in Australia for over the last ten years, reported ABC News.

According to the search warrant, Dion called police after they held a news conference asking the public for help on the case and tried to blame an associate for Phetmang's killing, while admitting he had Phetmang's credit cards and cellphones with him in San Diego.

Dion, a U.S. citizen is believed to have left Australia on May 27, just over a week before the body was found and identified.

AUSTRALIA OPPOSES DEATH PENALTY AS ASSANGE SUPPORTERS MARCH

He told police that he had met Phetmang at the gas station to buy meth but that he left when their associate showed up. Police say that story doesn't match up with the surveillance footage in the area.

Dion was refused bail and will appear in court on Monday.

Source: Fox News World

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New premier urges Algerians to accept dialogue

Algeria's newly appointed prime minister, Noureddine Bedoui, speaks during a joint news conference with deputy prime minister Ramtane Lamamra, in Algiers
Algeria's newly appointed prime minister, Noureddine Bedoui, speaks during a joint news conference with deputy prime minister Ramtane Lamamra, in Algiers, Algeria March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

March 14, 2019

By Lamine Chikhi

(Reuters) – Algeria’s new prime minister said on Thursday he would form a temporary government of technocrats and others to work toward political change in response to weeks of street protests, and he urged the opposition to join in a dialogue.

Noureddine Bedoui laid out his plans at a news conference in Algiers three days after ailing President Abelaziz Bouteflika announced his decision not to run for a fifth term that would have extended his 20 years in power.

Bouteflika’s offer came after tens of thousands of Algerians staged demonstrations demanding an overhaul of a stagnant political system dominated by veterans of the 1954-62 war of independence.

However, he stopped short of stepping down and many activists fear his move may be a ruse.

Bedoui, who replaced Ahmed Ouyahia on Monday, said the new government would be formed early next week and would rule for “a short period of time”.

It would be technocratic but also include young Algerians involved in the protest movement, including women, he said.

An independent commission will oversee the next presidential election, he said.

The prime minister urged the opposition to accept dialogue. But lawyers and activists who protesters have chosen to lead the drive for reforms are in no mood to compromise and have said they will not negotiate, at least for now.

The government on Wednesday declared itself ready for talks, saying it sought a ruling system based on “the will of the people” after opposition groups rejected proposed reforms as inadequate.

Bouteflika, who has not been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, promised on Monday to work for a new era that would cater to all Algerians.

But the initiative by the veteran revolutionary, who also delayed elections set for April and said a conference would be held to discuss political change, has failed to satisfy many Algerians who want power to move to a younger generation with fresh ideas.

Tens of thousands of people from all social classes have demonstrated over the last three weeks against corruption, unemployment and the ruling class.

The protests have shaken up a long moribund political scene marked by decades of social and economic malaise and behind-the-scenes power-broking by an influential military establishment.

Young Algerians have no bond with the independence war except through their grandparents. Their priorities are to find jobs and better services that the North African country is failing to provide despite its oil and gas wealth.

(Reporting by Algiers bureau, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Klobuchar Says Free College For All Too Expensive

Presidential hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., says she’s no fan of a popular plank for progressives — free college for all — because it’s too expensive.

At a CNN Town Hall Monday in which Klobuchar expanded on her policy stances, she told a young voter she wouldn’t support the plan forwarded by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who’s also tossed his hat in the ring for the 2020 presidential race.

“I am not for free four-year college for all, no," Klobuchar said.

“I wish — if I was a magic genie and could give that to everyone and we could afford it, I would. I’m just trying to find a mix of incentives and make sure kids that are in need — that’s why I talked about expanding Pell Grants — can go to college and be able to afford it and make sure that people that can’t afford it are able to pay.”

Klobuchar has shied away from the more left-wing aspects of Sanders's and others' plans for college tuition, student debt, and other issues, including climate change, The Hill noted.

For example, The Hill reported, Klobuchar referred to the "Green New Deal" supported by rising Democratic star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as "aspirational" and has said she is opposed to a "Medicare for all" single-payer health care system.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Italy February business morale falls to lowest in almost three years amid recession

Buildings are seen in the Porta Nuova district in Milan
Buildings are seen in the Porta Nuova district in Milan, Italy, March 27, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

February 27, 2019

Feb 27 (Reuters) – Morale among Italian manufacturers declined to its lowest level in almost three years and consumer sentiment also declined in February after the economy dipped into recession at the end of last year.

ISTAT’s manufacturing confidence index fell to 101.7 in February from a revised 102.0 in January, national statistics office ISTAT said on Wednesday.

The reading was slightly above the median forecast of 101.4 in a Reuters survey of 11 analysts, but the lowest for the index since August 2016.

ISTAT’s composite business morale index, combining surveys of the manufacturing, retail, construction and services sectors, also declined in February to 98.3, its lowest in four years, from a revised 99.1 in January.

Consumer confidence fell in February to 112.4, the index’s lowest level since August 2017, and lower than a median forecast of 113.0 in a Reuters survey of eight analysts. In January, consumer sentiment was a revised 113.9.

The surveys come after Italy’s economy, the euro zone’s third biggest, slumped into its third recession in a decade in the second half of last year.

Sentiment is declining amid rising tensions within the governing populist coalition. Disagreements between the ruling League party and its 5-Star Movement partner have been bubbling up over a series of issues, including the construction of an Alpine tunnel.

The government forecasts GDP growth of 1 percent this year, but most independent bodies expect it to come in at little more than half that rate.

ISTAT gave the following data on the February manufacturing confidence survey:

(Reporting by Steve Scherer, Rome Newsroom reutersitaly@thomsonreuters.com)

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What a Bunch of Phony Baloneys

Have you ever seen so much mendacity and womendacity at once? Whatta bunch of phony baloneys! It was bound to happen in the Democrat-Left Age of Intersectionality. In an era where you lose society-advantage points for being White, more points...

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China business activity recovering thanks to ‘credit-soaked’ quarter: Beige Book

FILE PHOTO: People stand on the sidewalk at Lujiazui financial district in Pudong, Shanghai
FILE PHOTO: People stand on the sidewalk at Lujiazui financial district in Pudong, Shanghai, China March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song

March 26, 2019

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s economy showed “unmistakable” signs of recovery in the first quarter, with company profits, investment and hiring improving, but policymakers may be relying too much on extraordinary levels of credit, a private survey showed on Wednesday.

The quarterly survey of thousands of Chinese firms by China Beige Book International (CBB) painted a surprising picture of a turnaround in business conditions after a poor fourth quarter that saw the weakest economic growth since the financial crisis.

CBB’s findings were in contrast to mostly downbeat official data for January and February and other business surveys which suggest recent stimulus measures are only slowly kicking in. Most analysts have also warned of a rocky first quarter, and do not expect China’s economic downturn to bottom out until mid-year.

However, the U.S.-based consultancy questioned whether the first-quarter’s “credit-soaked” recovery was sustainable, noting riskier types of shadow banking were on the rise again.

While companies said access to credit was improving, the survey also found some firms were reporting higher interest rates, despite the central bank’s efforts to lower financing costs.

“Credit is surprisingly expensive… Credit costs need to be further stabilized or the current rally will falter,” CBB said in a statement, saying shadow lenders were charging sky-high rates.

Chinese banks lent a record 3.23 trillion yuan ($477 billion) in January as policymakers tried to jumpstart sluggish investment and prevent a sharper slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

Authorities have urged banks to keep lending to struggling small and private firms in particular, even though such companies are considered higher credit risks.

“Even traditionally disadvantaged firms in the credit markets are no longer so – at least for a quarter: private firm borrowing outpaced state-owned enterprises in the first quarter,” CBB said.

In early March, Premier Li Keqiang announced billions of dollars in additional tax cuts and infrastructure spending this year.

Along with a growing list of government support measures, signs of progress in U.S.-China trade talks may also have been a factor behind the improvement in business confidence, CBB added.

China will release March and first-quarter economic data around mid-April.

(Writing by Kim Coghill; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

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Ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey: Democrats Are Delusional

Instead of continuing the collusion "delusions," Democrats should be investigating how the Justice Department got the investigation into Russia's 2016 election meddling "so wrong" with "prosecutorial abuse," according to a Democratic former Nebraska senator and governor.

"Delusions fascinate me in part because I have so many of my own," ex-Gov./Sen. Bob Kerrey wrote in an Omaha World-Herald op-ed. "Most often delusions are harmless. Sometimes they are not.

"At the moment my fellow Democrats are suffering from two that are harmful.

"The first is that Americans long for a president who will ask us to pay more for the pleasure of increasing the role of the federal government in our lives."

Americans just do not favor the Green New Deal, a tax on wealth or Medicare for all, he wrote.

"The second Democratic delusion is that Americans were robbed of the truth when special prosecutor Robert Mueller and Attorney General William Barr concluded that President Trump did not collude with Russia in 2016," Kerrey continued. "All evidence indicates that the full report will not change the conclusion that Donald J. Trump did not collude with Vladimir Putin to secure his victory in 2016.

"Rather than investigating the president further, Congress needs to investigate how the Department of Justice got this one so wrong. If the president of the United States is vulnerable to prosecutorial abuse, then God help all the rest of us."

Like legal expert Alan Dershowitz has maintained from the start, Congress needs a "nonpartisan commission" to investigate the failings of the justice system in searching for a crime that was not found in the Mueller Report.

"Find out what went wrong and to tell us what needs to be done to make certain it never happens again," Kerrey wrote, pointing to four key questions:

  1. Is the FBI Director free of political pressure to investigate candidates or elected officials on a partisan basis?
  2. Can we write rules to govern candidate and officeholders?
  3. How does the FBI decide to open an investigation? "A single campaign official suggesting the possibility of collusion with a foreign power or a document written as opposition research or a demand from a member of Congress are very thin reeds upon which to challenge the legitimacy of an elected official," Kerrey wrote.
  4. "Are federal pardons justified?"

"Our democracy will survive the hostility of Vladimir Putin," Kerrey concluded. "What it may not survive is distrust of our system of justice. At the moment that distrust is deep and wide.

"We need a nonpartisan national commission to tell us what has just happened and to advise us on what we need to do to keep it from happening again."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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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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