EC clamps down on Govt ad campaign

Other oil companies which have been asked to hold back their ads are Lubrizol, Madras Refineries, Cochin Refineries and BRPL — petroleum ministry sources who maintain that the ads were not meant to be political in nature, said the ads would appear after the elections were over.

What’s worse, an angry EC said today, was that they had written to the Cabinet Secretary about this three days ago, pointing out that such ads were in violation of the election code. “Since the earlier instructions went unheeded the Commission has conveyed its displeasure once again to the Cabinet Secretariat and asked that this shouldn’t happen,” Commission sources said.

It was only yesterday, however, following the Cabinet Secretary’s orders that the petroleum ministry issued verbal instructions to the petroleum companies asking them to stop issuing the ads–even so, the public sector Gas Authority of India Limited’s ad still appeared in today’s newspapers. The EC,it appears, also alerted senior officials in the petroleum ministry the day the ads started appearing, but since no action was taken, they had to write to the Cabinet Secretary.

Interestingly, while the companies were asked to portray the achievements of the government and their own, they were somewhat reluctant to do so initially since this would also draw attention to their failures. All the ads, for example, highlight the fact that the government has begun the process of opening up the sector by dismantling the Administered Price Mechanism (APM).

What it does not state, however, is that this process included reducing subsidies on LPG and kerosene as well, and that the government has gone back on this promise–in fact, at this point in time, the BJP itself is trying to slow down the process of freeing the oil sector. Similarly, the ads talk of how the government has reduces prices of items like diesel and naphtha twice –the fact, however, is that these fell because world prices fell. In any case,prices of naphtha are now set to rise with global prices hardening.

Similarly, the ad by Indian Oil Corporation highlights the fact that it has set up a new 6 million tonne refinery at Panipat, but doesn’t mention the fact that it is over a year late, and is still not completely functional, with critical units still facing serious problems. Interestingly, IOC is engaged in a war of words with its prime contractor, Engineers India Limited for who is to blame–EIL, however, boasts of how its order books are full, without mentioning the fact that government directives forcing the public sector to utilise its services is responsible for this.

ONGC boasts of how it has achieved new highs in drilling, but is silent about how oil production continues to fall, how it has lost billions of dollars by damaging fields like Bombay High and Neelam, and how its maiden venture in deep sea drilling has been a total fiasco so far.

And while GAIL’s “silent achiever breaks its silence” highlights its achievement ofcompleting all projects without any cost over-runs, it fails to mention the time over-runs in its projects, or the fact that projects like the Mumbai gas one are hopelessly delayed.