Police in southwestern Michigan are warning residents to be vigilant after a patron reported finding razor blades on a gas pump handle.
A woman found two razor blades at Speedway on Ryno Street Monday evening, Coloma Township Police wrote on Facebook Tuesday evening.
When police inspected the next day, they found six more blades on top of the pump, the Detroit Free Press reported. Police reviewed surveillance footage but were unable to identify a suspect, the report said.
“They may have been there trying to do more, but then maybe someone may have saw them and they ran off. I’m not sure what happened,” Chief Wes Smigielski told WSBT 22.
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council is calling on all Libyans to put aside their differences and use next month's National Conference to work toward peace.
The council on Tuesday urged all those attending the April 14-16 conference in Ghadames near the border with Algeria "to come together to engage in good faith in this Libyan-led, Libyan-owned process."
The U.N. envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, urged rival factions last week to seize the conference's "crucial opportunity" to unite the country and chart a roadmap to elections and peace after years of division and chaos.
If the opportunity isn't seized, he warned that the only options are "prolonged stalemate or conflict."
The Security Council backed Salame's efforts "to mediate a political way forward in Libya that would lead to credible and peaceful elections."
The release of Robert Mueller’s Russia report's “principal conclusions” shows that after a two-year probe what President Trump said at the outset was "correct," Trump personal attorney Jay Sekulow said Monday.
“There was no collusion, there was no obstruction and we need to move on,” Sekulow told “Fox & Friends.”
He agreed with Trump’s other personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that someone tricked the FBI into opening its initial investigation into any Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.
Earlier Monday, Giuliani told “Fox & Friends” in response to a question about that, "Yes, yes, yes -- and you're going to find out, believe me, who it was.”
“I think that the whole thing started with the dossier, the Steele dossier and (former FBI director) James Comey calls it ‘salacious and unverified’ and meanwhile they start a counterintelligence action on that and then you have the FISA warrants and the people with the FISA warrants again are brought up on no charges as far as it relates to (former Trump campaign adviser) Carter Page,” Sekulow said.
Attorney General William Barr summarized the main findings of the Mueller report in a four-page letter delivered to Congress Sunday.
Sekulow, who is also chief counsel of the constitutional law nonprofit American Center for Law and Justice, said that now was the time to turn the focus from investigating Trump to governing.
“Congress has got these investigations on these same exact topics except they don’t have the resources or the capabilities, or frankly, the jurisdiction to get the kind of information Special Counsel (Mueller) got,” he said. “So instead of wasting money and time, and more importantly I think as important as time, let’s focus on things for the American people.”
Sekulow noted that the president said he’s in favor of complete immigration reform so that's one of the things Washington can now get done.
“There are a lot of things that can be done to advance our country over the next several years,” he said. “Let’s start governing again and I think that will be best for the American people.”
The House by a 420-0 vote called for public release of the Mueller report with redactions for classified secrets and other information that should not be disclosed.
Trump said Wednesday on releasing the report, “Let it come out, let people see it. Let’s see whether or not it’s legit.”
Sekulow said he believes Barr will move expeditiously in releasing the report to the public consistent with the law, regulations and Justice Department policy.
“He is not going to disclose (grand jury) material,” Sekulow said of the attorney general. “If you did, that could be a criminal act if he did disclose grand jury material. National security material should not be disclosed. People that were exonerated should not be put in a spotlight. That would be wrong.”
KATHMANDU, Nepal – A helicopter flying in bad weather with six people on board, possibly including Nepal's tourism minister, went missing Wednesday in Nepal's mountainous region, officials said.
Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari was among the people who boarded the helicopter when it left Kathmandu. However, it was not clear if he got off the aircraft when it made a stop before it lost contact with the airport tower in Kathmandu, said Nepal Police spokesman Uttam Raj Subedi.
He said rescuers were searching for the chopper, but the weather was making the operation difficult in an area about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of the Nepalese capital.
FILE PHOTO: May 24, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; TJ Dillashaw (blue) pins down Renan Barao (red) during their UFC 173 bantamweight championship bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Dillashaw won the bout by way of TKO. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
March 20, 2019
TJ Dillashaw surrendered the UFC bantamweight belt Wednesday, announcing he was informed by the New York State Athletic Commission and the United States Anti-Doping Agency of an “adverse finding in a test taken for my last fight.”
The New York governing body also suspended him for one year and issued a $10,000 fine, citing “violations relating to use of a prohibited substance.” The suspension is retroactive to Jan. 19, the date of the fight.
Dillashaw (16-4) said “while words can’t even begin to express how disappointed I am at this time, please know that I’m working with my team to understand what has occurred and how to resolve this situation as quickly as possible. Out of fairness and respect to the rest of my division, I’ve informed the UFC that I’ll be voluntarily relinquishing my title while I deal with this matter.”
The 33-year-old had held the title since November 2017, his second title reign, claiming the belt in a knockout of Cody Garbrandt at UFC 217.
President Donald Trump holds up his fist as he finishes his speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting, Saturday April 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump looks to reshape the executive branch, he's avoiding the words "You're hired."
Trump's choice of Kevin McAleenan as acting replacement for Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen spotlights the president's increasing reliance on a once-obscure federal statute that governs how to fill vacant federal posts. It also raises fresh questions about his reliance on temporary appointments for key security roles. The reality-star president, who once made staff churn into prime-time television, has overseen massive turnover in just two years in office. But he's shown little concern for creating uncertainty about the leadership of some of the country's most important agencies.
Disordered departures have become the rule in the Trump administration, with aides and even Cabinet officials pushed out at a record pace, often with no clear replacement plan in place. And when he does have a plan, Trump has made a habit of taking the creative route, going around in-place deputies to select other officials he believes are more loyal or amenable to his agenda.
Officials with "acting" titles abound in key roles, from the secretary of defense to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and even the White House chief of staff. And when Linda McMahon's resignation as Small Business Administrator takes effect later this week, that agency will be led by yet another acting official. Trump has announced his intention to nominate Jovita Carranza, the current treasurer of the United States, for the role.
The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 gives a president wide berth to fill openings across the executive branch and he's used it without restraint to re-jigger the succession plans of the Departments of Justice and Veterans Affairs. But in selecting McAleenan, Trump will have to go even further. The agency's undersecretary of management, Claire Grady, is technically next in line for the job. She will need to resign — or more likely be fired — in order for McAleenan to assume the acting position under the act.
Allowing individuals to fill roles in an acting capacity allows the White House to avoid Senate confirmation battles. Trump has seen several high-profile nominations founder, and others that have become distracting political fights.
"I like acting. It gives me more flexibility. Do you understand that?" Trump said in January, facing questions about acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. "I like acting. So we have a few that are acting. We have a great, great Cabinet."
But it also serves as a "run around Congress," said the Brookings Institution's Darrell West. "He's worried that he would not be able to get all of these people through the U.S. Senate, even though Republicans still control the Senate."
West added: "It makes the administration look chaotic and not really in control of what it is doing, but Trump seems comfortable with that and he seems willing to live with that reality."
White House officials acknowledged that the roster of "actings" was not ideal, saying Trump's haste to make personnel changes, even without establishing succession plans, reflected his experience in the private sector. Some suggested it marked Trump's wariness to hire the wrong people.
But the president has struggled to attract top-tier talent since even before taking office, in part because he has maintained a loyalty test that has kept away many qualified Republicans who were critical of his candidacy during the presidential campaign.
Shanahan assumed the post in December after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned over the president's Syria withdrawal plans and Trump has not named a permanent replacement. Mulvaney has been acting in the role since January, after the departure of chief of staff John Kelly.
At the Interior Department, David Bernhardt is serving in an acting capacity while his nomination to fill the role full time is pending before the Senate. The Office of Management and Budget is led by Russell Vought, while Mulvaney is at the White House.
"White House jobs and administration jobs are uber temporary because they're very difficult," said Matt Schlapp, a White House ally and chairman of the American Conservative Union. That's especially true for those who work for a Republican and especially Trump, Schlapp added, citing negative press and heightened media scrutiny.
Additional "actings" fill posts at the sub-Cabinet level.
Trump last week suddenly rescinded the nomination of acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement director Ron Vitiello to lead the agency permanently. And the Federal Aviation Administration has been led by an acting administrator, Daniel Elwell, since January 2018. Trump didn't nominate a permanent replacement until last month in the wake of a pair of aviation disasters.
The Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, said at the Homeland Security Department alone at least 10 top positions are filled in an acting capacity.
"The purge of senior leadership at the Department of Homeland Security is unprecedented and a threat to our national security," she said.
On Capitol Hill Trump's use of acting officials has drawn scrutiny from within his own party as well, both over concerns that Trump was usurping their authority and that the instability could make the nation less safe.
"I don't know what his rationale is, but it's bound to create more challenges," said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the number two Republican in the chamber. "They're not subject to Senate confirmation when they're in acting, and I think we need some more certainty, more predictability would be good."
___
AP writers Jill Colvin, Lisa Mascaro and Tracy Brown contributed.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo is utilizing holograms depicting his likeness in his rallies to give his campaign a competitive edge for the coming general election.
The tactic has been successful in reaching voters in the rural far-corners of the world’s 4th most populous country.
“This is really helpful in the campaign,” said a Widodo campaign organizer.
Logistically, using the technology is the right choice as the Muslim-majority nation houses over 17,000 islands sprawling at a length greater than that of the U.S.
Widodo’s main rival, ex-general Prabowo Subianto, has so far not used holograms for his campaign.
The April 17th election will be the first time in the country’s history the president, vice president, and legislative branch (People’s Consultative Assembly) will be elected on the same day.
The use of holograms brings into mind the controversial use of deep fakes, the emerging tech that is capable of portraying politicians inaccurately.
In January, an American news station was caught doctoring a video of President Trump to make him look ridiculous.
For over a year, the media has been scaremongering about Russia exploiting deepfake technology to deceive the American people.
An anti-Trump liberal in Seattle does it during a live presidential Oval Office address and none of them even report on it.
Correspondingly, deep fakes have caught the concern of leaders in President Trump’s intelligence community, like the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
“The speed and adaptation of new technologies will continue to drive the world in ways we can’t understand,” said Coats. “It becomes a major challenge to the intelligence community to stay ahead of the game and have resources directed toward how we need to address these threats.”
Similarly, elections are also vulnerable to Big Tech interference, whether its Google controlling search results to swing 80% of undecided voters or Facebook allegedly stifling online communities under the pretense of “election integrity” efforts.
Fox Host Tucker Carlson has repeatedly voiced concerns over the power media giants have when it comes to influencing politics.
TUCKER: “You’re not going to get a Republican president elected ever until Google is restrained. Period.”
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)
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.
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)
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)
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.
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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