The sliding crude prices have brought cheers to the petroleum and finance ministries which can breathe easy in this final year of transition to a completely decontrolled oil sector. With the international crude oil prices dropping from a high of $ 37 a barrel last fiscal to $ 18-20 a barrel now, the government is looking forward to containing the oil pool deficit to around Rs 12,000 crore by the end of the current financial year.
The government is also likely to take a 10 per cent hit on its customs duty realisation from crude oil imports estimated at Rs 15,000 crore this fiscal.
The falling oil prices coupled with a slowdown in the country's economy resulting in a lower consumption of petroleum products, is also expected to bring down in the oil import bill which was about Rs 80,000 crore last fiscal. While this could be welcome so far as the country's foreign exchange reserves are concerned, it is just the opposite for the country's economic growth.
FDI approvals peter out
Save intermmitent political imbroglio and other important engagements due to exigencies such as the terrorist attacks in the US and later on, on Parliament, the government had shown considerable urgency for increasing FDI inflows into the country during the past year. FDI inflow is said to have increased marginally as compared to last year
