For the sixth consecutive year, PetroFed organised, in association with member company and knowledge partner PricewaterhouseCoopers, a Senior Management Meet on Implications of the Union Budget 2008 on the day following presentation of the Budget in Parliament.  A similar meet was organised for the third consecutive year at Mumbai on 3rd March, 2008.

At Delhi on March 1, 2008, Chairing the session Shri T.N.R. Rao, former Secretary, MoP&NG complimented PetroFed for organizing the event regularly for the past six years and termed the Budget a pre-election exercise with little cheer for the oil & gas industry.  The keynote address was by Dr. B.B. Bhattacharya, Vice Chancellor, JNU on ‘The Budget and New Economy of India’.   Welcoming participants earlier, Shri A.K. Arora, Director General, PetroFed brought out that hardly any attention had been paid in the Budget to the demands raised by the sector in its pre-budget memorandum.

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.  He brought out the controversial addition in the memorandum to the Finance Bill regarding change in definition of ‘Mineral Oil’ and the sunset clause pertaining to withdrawl of seven year tax holiday for grassroots refineries commissioned after April 1, 2009.   The Indirect Tax implications were explained in detail by Shri S. Madhavan, Executive Director, PwC at New Delhi while Shri Sachin Menon, Executive Director tackled the topic at Mumbai.  The conversion of excise duty, they said, from ad valorem plus specific rate to specific rate on unbranded MS/HSD would marginally benefit oil marketing companies.

The industry perspective of the Budget provisions were shared at Delhi by Sh. R.P. Sharma, President (Gas Business), Reliance Industries Ltd., Sh. B.L. Ghasolia, Executive Director (Corporate Finance), ONGC and Ms. D. Lilly, Executive Director (Pricing & Taxation), IndianOil. 

At Mumbai, Shri V.K. Sharma, Executive Director, Tata Petrodyne & former Director ONGC chaired the session.  The keynote address by Prof. Sebastian Morris of IIM-Ahmedabad on ‘Inflation and Growth in India Today’   expressed concern on infrastructural policies, land acquisitions and the widening income gaps. 

After the PwC presentations on direct and indirect tax implications the industry observations were shared by Sh. R. Ganapathisubramanian, Sr. VP (Commercial), RIL and Sh. R. Ganesan, General Manager (Tax), HPCL. 

Each meet was followed by an intense question/answer session where doubts and concerns were allayed by the speakers.

Click here to view Delhi presentations: (right click and ‘Save Target As’)

Click here to view Mumbai presentations: (right click and ‘Save Target As’)