For the fifth year in succession PetroFed organised a Senior Management Meet on Implications of the Union Budget 2007 for the Oil & Gas sector on the day following the presentation of Union Budget in Parliament by the Hon'ble Finance Minister at New Delhi in association with member company and knowledge partner PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Limited. The meet was organised at the India Habitat Centre on March 01, 2007 .

Witnessing the enthusiastic response at Mumbai at a similar meet last year the event was held in Mumbai, for the second successive year on March 02, 2007 . It was hosted by Essar and chaired by Shri A. N. Sinha, MD & CEO Essar Oil Ltd.

Chairing the session at New Delhi , Shri T. N. R. Rao, former Secretary, MoP&NG complimented PetroFed for organising the event regularly for the past five years and termed the Budget a very restrictive one which did not address several key issues facing the sector. Professor Sebastian Morris of IIM, Ahmedabad in his keynote address on ‘Institutional Challenges for High Growth in India Today' expressed concern on infrastructural policies, land acquisitions and the widening income gaps. He called for elimination of subsidies in products like Kerosene and LPG, and in its place direct subsidy to the deserving families with dismantling of ‘A' PM (Arbitrary Pricing Mechanism).

The direct tax implications of the Union Budget on the sector were delineated by Shri Rahul Garg, Executive Director, PwC, who also presented the subject at the Mumbai meet. The Indirect Tax implications were explained in detail by Shri S. Madhavan, Executive Director, PwC at New Delhi while Shri Dharmesh Panchal, Sr. Manager, PwC tackled the topic at Mumbai.

The industry perspective of the Budget provisions were shared by Shri S. V. Narasimhan, Director (Finance), IOCL ; Shri R. P. Sharma, President (Gas Business), RIL and Shri T. K. Ananth Kumar, Director (Finance), Oil India Ltd. at New Delhi.

At Mumbai Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Director & CEO, Indian Council for Research On International Economic Relations (ICRIER) in his keynote address on ‘State of the Economy and Budget' drew attention to the Government's expenditure (as percentage to GDP) on subsidies and interest payments. He also listed infrastructure bottlenecks, labour market rigidities, mismatch of skills and issues of Governance as the downside risks.

After the PwC presentations on direct and indirect tax implications the industry observations were shared by Shri G.Krishnamoorthy, Head (Indirect Taxation), Essar Group and Shri R. Ganpathisubramanian, Sr. Vice President (Commercial), RIL. Shri A. N. Sinha brought out in his concluding remarks that the Oil & Gas sector was crucial for fuelling the Indian economy and that it deserved a better deal than it was meted out in the Union Budget.

Welcoming participants at both the meets Director General, PetroFed, Shri A. K. Arora expressed optimism that the Oil & Gas industry in India will continue on its high growth trajectory. Each meet was followed by an intense question/answer session where doubts and concerns were allayed by the speakers.

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