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Death toll from Sri Lanka bombing attacks rises to 359: police

FILE PHOTO: People react during a mass burial of victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: People react during a mass burial of victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

April 24, 2019

COLOMBO (Reuters) – The death toll from the Easter Sunday suicide bombing attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka rose to 359, police said on Wednesday without providing any further details.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera released the toll but did not give a breakdown of casualties from the three churches and four hotels hit by suicide bombers. The toll had been put at 321 on Tuesday, with about 500 people also wounded.

The attacks were claimed on Tuesday by the Islamic State militant group, which said they were carried out by seven attackers but gave no evidence to support the claim. If the Islamic State claim is true, that would make it one of the worst attacks carried out by the group outside Iraq and Syria.

(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: OANN

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As medical costs mount, Japan to weigh cost-effectiveness in setting drug prices

A staff member of the National Cancer Center Hospital shows the immune system-boosting cancer drug Opdivo during a photo opportunity at the hospital in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: A staff member of the National Cancer Center Hospital shows the immune system-boosting cancer drug Opdivo during a photo opportunity at the hospital in Tokyo, Japan December 26, 2018.REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

February 18, 2019

By Takashi Umekawa

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese doctor Yasushi Goto remembers prescribing the cancer drug Opdivo to an octogenarian and wondering whether taxpayers might object to helping fund treatment, which at the time cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, for patients in their twilight years.

Japanese have easy access to new medicines, whose prices are decided by the government and subsidized by the country’s public health insurance system.

But that may change. Japan, confronted with the ballooning cost of caring for an aging population, is introducing a cost-effectiveness test for drugs as a means of capping prices.

There are no plans to deny care for patients of any age. But limiting the prices of innovative but costly treatments might chase new drugs out of the $86 billion Japanese market, drugmakers say.

“If you ask whether it’s worth prescribing an 85-year-old patient Opdivo, a lot of people will say no. But patients and family members are going to say yes,” said Goto, who works at the National Cancer Centre Hospital.

Patients also fear more drastic changes, such as denying access to new medicines; Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic council in December proposed considering cost in determining whether to approve treatments.

“For cancer patients like us, it’s not acceptable if the government applies a cost-effective analysis in determining whether to approve treatments,” said Yoshiyuki Majima, a director of patient advocacy group Rare Cancers Japan.

SUSTAINABILITY OR ACCESS

The Japanese government estimates that public medical spending could surge 75 percent to 68.5 trillion yen ($624 billion) by 2040.

“It is obvious that Japan will face difficulties in providing social security service,” said a government official involved in the discussions, declining to be named because he is not authorized to speak to media. “The cost-effectiveness analysis is a means to secure sustainability.”

The system that will be adopted in April, according to a draft published on the health ministry’s website, compares the cost to the effectiveness of new treatments using an “incremental cost-effectiveness ratio,” or ICER.

ICER, already used in countries such as Britain, considers how much it costs to give a patient one additional year of healthy life compared with existing alternatives. If that exceeds 5 million yen, for example, the government may insist on a lower price, according the policy draft.

There has been little public discussion; weekly meetings so far have involved mostly Health Ministry officials, doctors, academics and drugmaker executives.

“If I have rheumatoid arthritis and I can’t write or type, but then I get a treatment that enables me to go back to work, pay taxes, and take care of my family, that benefit is not going to be captured by the ICER,” said Kevin Haninger, a vice president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a lobbying group.

In an interview with Reuters, he insisted Japan should carefully consider an impact on the industry when introducing such analysis to reduce drug prices.

“If Japan is going to cut prices so much, I think Japan will really run a risk of losing its current position,” he said.

LUCRATIVE MARKET NO MORE?

Drugmakers have been complaining about price cuts since 2017, when the government decided to review costs more frequently.

Japan has slashed the price of Opdivo, developed by Ono Pharmaceutical Co Ltd and Bristol-Myers Squibb, by more than 75 percent in the last two years. It has also lowered Gilead Science’s hepatitis C drug Sovaldi by 32 percent since 2016.

But while drugmakers threaten to pull back from Japan, the government is prepared to call the industry’s bluff, saying Japan is too lucrative a market for companies to ignore, according to two government officials, who declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Unlike the United States, where insurers may deny claims, or the UK, where patients can be denied costly drugs, Japan is seen as a relatively predictable market because of its social insurance system.

For example, Novartis’ Kymriah, a type of therapy in which a patient’s T-cells are modified to attack cancer cells, is expected to be approved in Japan this year.

The price for pediatric leukemia patients, to be set by a government panel after approval, is expected to start at about $475,000, similar to U.S. prices. With an estimated 250 Japanese eligible for treatment with Kymriah, sales in Japan are a potentially lucrative addition to Novartis’ bottom line.

Novartis declined to comment on potential effects of a new pricing policy.

Goto said the government should focus on reducing prescriptions for illnesses that are not serious, rather than costly but possibly life-saving treatments for a small number of patients.

“Flu medicines, for example, can be seen to have very low cost-effectiveness because they don’t save people’s lives, except those of infants or pregnant women, compared with cancer drugs that are critical for some patients,” he said.

(Reporting by Takashi Umekawa; Editing by Ritsuko Ando and Gerry Doyle)

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U.S. official sees likely third Trump summit with North Korea’s Kim

Panel discussion after a Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) conference
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Under Secretary of State Andrea Thompson attends a panel discussion after a Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) conference in Beijing, China January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/Pool

March 11, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top U.S. Department of State official on Monday said she thinks there will be another summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but no date has been set.

Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson made the comment in a speech at the Carnegie Nuclear Conference in Washington.

(Reporting by Arhsad Mohammed; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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More than half of Americans believe Mueller probe was fair, are satisfied with results: Poll

More than half of Americans believe Special Counsel Robert Mueller conducted a fair investigation and were satisfied with the results -- including a majority of independents, according to a poll released Friday.

A new NPR/PBS New Hour/ Marist poll said 56 percent of those polled thought Mueller conducted a fair investigation, while 51 percent of respondents overall -- and 52 percent of independents -- said they were satisfied with the probe and its results, NPR reported.

MUELLER REPORT MORE THAN 300 PAGES LONG: DOJ 

According to NPR, the question of whether Americans were “satisfied” with the investigation was one of the only questions polled during the Trump administration in which a majority of independents voted alongside Republicans, rather than Democrats.

The poll also revealed that while Americans were “satisfied,” an overwhelming majority want the special counsel’s full report to be made public.

Mueller transmitted his report to Attorney General Bill Barr last Friday. Barr released his summary of the special counsel’s more than 300-page report on Sunday, announcing that Mueller found no evidence members of the Trump campaign -- or anyone associated with it -- colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, despite numerous offers from Kremlin-linked sources.

Another line of inquiry the special counsel’s office was probing was whether President Trump obstructed justice during the investigation. Mueller, after reviewing the evidence, decided not to come to a conclusion on the matter, and instead, kicked the decision to the Justice Department.

NELLIE OHR, WIFE OF DOJ OFFICIAL, DID EXTENSIVE OPPO RESEARCH ON TRUMP FAMILY, AIDES

Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and conducted oversight of the investigation after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself due to his involvement in the Trump campaign, effectively cleared Trump on obstruction, saying evidence was not sufficient to establish the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.

The Justice Department is expected to release Mueller’s full report, with redactions, in the coming weeks. Congressional Democrats blasted Barr’s short, four-page summary of Mueller’s findings and have called for full transparency, urging the release of the full report to Congress and the public by April 2.

Barr has employed the help of Mueller, along with federal prosecutors in the special counsel's office, to help to determine which portions of the report can be made public, and which portions need to remain under seal due to sensitive grand jury materials and investigative methods.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Snapchat to launch gaming platform next month: Cheddar

The front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with a Snap Inc. logo hung on the front of it stands shortly before the company's IPO in New York
FILE PHOTO: The front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with a Snap Inc. logo hung on the front of it stands shortly before the company's IPO in New York, U.S., March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

March 15, 2019

(Reuters) – Parent of Snapchat messaging app Snap Inc plans to announce its gaming platform for developers next month, online news service Cheddar reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The platform, codenamed “Project Cognac,” will feature a handful of games from outside developers designed to work specifically in the Snapchat app, according to the report https://cheddar.com/media/snapchat-to-launch-gaming-platform.

The new games initiative will be unveiled at Snap’s first-ever summit for content and developer partners in Los Angeles on April 4 and video initiatives like more original shows will also be announced, the report added.

Snap did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

(Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

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Taliban announce launch of spring offensive amid peace talks

The Taliban have announced the start of their spring offensive even as they talk peace with the United States and prepare for a significant gathering to find an end to the protracted war and an eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

In a lengthy missive distributed in five languages, including English, the Taliban say the fighting would continue while foreign fighters are in Afghanistan and supported by Afghan security forces.

The announcement says, "mujahedeen brothers are requested to launch the jihadi operation with complete sincerity and pure intentions."

It was written to Taliban fighters on the ground. It calls for coordination, strict adherence to the Taliban's military command structure and exhorts fighters to avoid civilian casualties.

Still preparations are underway for Afghan-to-Afghan talks to begin April 19.

Source: Fox News World

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Preparations underway for Kim-Putin summit in Russia

Preparations are underway for a summit between the leader of North Korea and Russia's president.

The Kremlin confirmed earlier this month that Kim Jong Un would meet with President Putin before the end of the month but has not named the place or date, citing security concerns.

Russia's port city of Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean, in the meantime, is seeing a number of unusually strict security measures.

Maritime authorities said on Tuesday that the waters around Russky Island, the likely summit venue, will be closed for all maritime traffic between Wednesday morning and Friday morning. Separately, local media reported that several platforms at Vladivostok's main train station will be closed for several days.

Kim, like his father, avoids air travel and is likely to travel to Vladivostok by train.

Source: Fox News World

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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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