据普氏能源资讯新加坡10月15日消息称，印度决定降低零售燃料油价格，这可能会引发一些问题，即随着大选临近，新德里是否会采取类似削减措施，但参加印度能源论坛的代表们表示此举不会削弱印度能源政策改革的方向。
原油价格上涨和国内货币走软带来的双重打击促使印度于本月早些时候降低零售燃料油价格，这是自一年前与全球市场结盟以来的首次降价。
虽然这一举措带来了额外的财政负担，但代表们表示，政府正在努力为消费者提供某种临时救助。
Ratnagiri炼油和石化公司首席执行官兼印度石油公司前首席执行官B. Ashok告诉在新德里举行的印度能源论坛期间告诉普氏能源资讯记者：“印度能源部门改革的过程是不可逆转的。政府降价是考虑到市场形势的最佳举措。”
即使是主导行业官员也表示他们预计新德里不会放弃推动能源政策改革。
纳亚拉能源公司首席执行官B. Anand告诉他们普氏能源资讯：“很明显，政府在几年前采取的一项重大举措就是解除对价格的管制。在这些前提下，像我们这样的公司已经在零售燃料油领域进行了大量投资。”
他补充说：“政府有一项强有力的倡议，让越来越多的私人合作伙伴进入供应和分销方面。所以我们相信，我们希望政府所采取的政策不会有任何改变。”
10月4日，政府以每升1.50卢比（0.02美元/升）的价格减少两种燃料的消费税。此外，新德里还要求印度石油公司、印度斯坦石油公司和巴拉特石油公司等国有石油零售商在全国范围内以1卢比/升降低汽油和柴油价格。
政府表示，由于政府的直接税收收入在本财政年度上半年有所上升，因此对消费者的救助不会增加当前财政年度（2018年4月—2019年3月）3.3%的财政赤字目标。
财政部长阿伦•贾特利（Arun Jaitley）在宣布降价后重申：“我向所有人明确保证，我们不会放弃对石油价格的放松管制。”
普氏能源资讯旗下子公司CRISIL的首席经济学家Dharmakirti Joshi表示，削减消费税可被视为“平稳价格的工具”—在原油价格低迷时提高消费税，在原油价格上涨时减少消费税。
他补充道“这比修补石油销售公司的收入要好得多，因为汽油和柴油已被解除管制，这应该尽可能避免。”
但一些分析师担心在未来新德里是否会再次采取类似削减措施。
野村在研究报告中说：“我们认为，投资者也会担心政府可能会再次实施类似的减税措施，并要求OMCs在未来也能承受油价的进一步影响。在我们看来，未来几个月，随着政府通常会采取措施更接近选举的民粹主义，这种担忧将会加剧。”
印度政府还采取了额外措施，缓解原油价格上涨带来的压力
印度储备银行最近放宽了国有炼油企业向海外市场借款的规定，试图将石油进口商的美元需求保持在适度水平来支撑卢比。印度储备银行已经取消了国有石油炼油商在海外自由借款7.5亿美元的限制，总体限额为100亿美元。
牛津经济研究院印度和东南亚负责人Priyanka Kishore说：“这与当局为稳定汇率所采取的渐进措施是一致的。但鉴于油价前景看涨，仅靠这些措施并不足以缓解印度卢比的贬值压力。”
陈菲 摘译自 普氏能源资讯
原文如下：
Analysis: India's energy sector reforms intact despite price cut
India's decision to reduce retail fuel prices may have raised questions The twin blow from rising crude prices and weakening domestic currency prompted India earlier this month to cut retail fuel prices for the first time since aligning them with the global market a year earlier.
Although the move brings additional fiscal burden, delegates said that it's an effort by the government to give some kind of interim relief to consumers.
"The process of energy sector reforms in India is irreversible. The price cut by the government is the best step taking into account the market situation," B. Ashok, CEO of Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd and former CEO of Indian Oil Corp, told S&P Global Platts Even leading industry officials have said they don't expect New Delhi to step back from pushing energy policy reforms.
"Clearly,"There is a strong initiative from the government to get more and more private partners into the supply and distribution side. So we believe and we are hoping that there won't be any change in the progress of policies the government has undertaken," he added.
On October 4, the government reduced the excise tax The government said the relief to the consumer would not increase the existing fiscal deficit target of 3.3% for the current fiscal year -- 2018-19 (April-March) -- as the government's direct tax revenue collection had risen in the first half of the fiscal year.
"Let me categorically assure all that there is no going back Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist at CRISIL, a unit of S&P Global, said a cut in excise duty can been seen as a "price smoothening tool" -- raising the excise duty when crude prices are low and cutting them when crude prices rise.
"This is better than tinkering with the revenues of oil marketing companies, which should be avoided as far as possible, as petrol and diesel have been decontrolled," he added.
But some analysts worry if New Delhi might resort to similar cuts again in the future.
"In our view, investors will also worry that the government could again do similar duty cuts, and ask OMCs to absorb a further oil price impact in future as well. The worries would increase in coming months, in our view, as governments typically take more populism closer to elections," Nomura said in a research note.
New Delhi has also taken additional steps to ease the pressure from rising crude oil prices.
The Reserve Bank of India has recently relaxed rules for state-run refiners to borrow money from overseas markets, in an effort to support the rupee by keeping dollar demand from oil importers at modest levels. RBI has removed a $750 million limit "This is in line with the incremental measures being taken by authorities to stabilize the currency. But given the bullish turn in the outlook for oil prices, such measures alone are not enough to ease the depreciation pressure on the Indian rupee in a meaningful manner," said Priyanka Kishore, head of India and Southeast Asia at Oxford Economics.
