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National Tax Tribunal Bill cleared
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Govt to set up GoM to revive Dabhol project
ONGC to buy stake of Cairn Energy in 2 gas fields
Qantas flies to India again
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China seeks deal on iron ore
Jindals to supply power at Rs 2 per unit
PU emerges as R&D hub
HC seeks Birlas’ will of 1981
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National Tax Tribunal Bill cleared
New Delhi, September 2 The fresh Bill would be introduced in Parliament and will have chairman and two judicial members in each of the 25 benches. A selection committee comprising the Chief Justice of India, Law Secretary and Revenue Secretary would select the Chairperson and members. Announcing the Cabinet decision, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the tribunal was being set up for speedy disposal of tax cases, running into thousands in high courts. A fresh Bill would be introduced in Parliament to set up NTT, which would replace jurisdiction of High Courts in tax matters and have a chairman and two judicial members each in the 25 benches, equivalent to the number of High Courts in the country. The NDA government had brought in a Bill, which lapsed with the dissolution of the previous Lok Sabha. Chidambaram announced that the Cabinet has approved yet another ‘The Delegated Legislation Provisions (Amendment) Bill. Sources said the chairperson would be a retired judge of the Supreme Court or a retired Chief Justice of high court and will hold office for five years or till 68 years, while the retirement age for other members would be 65 years. The chairperson and members would be selected by a selection committee consisting of Chief Justice of India or his nominee, Law Secretary and Revenue Secretary. The whole exercise of setting up a NTT and 25 benches is expected to cost about Rs eight crore. An appeal issued from an order passed by Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and Central Excise and Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal would come to the National Tax Tribunal only on substantial question of law. The proposed law seeks constitution of special bench consisting of five members to resolve conflicting decision of question of law between different benches of the tribunal which will have the powers of contempt. At present, about 28,000 cases are pending in various high courts, which have a disposal rate of 6,000 cases per year. The Law Commission had in its 115th report on ‘Tax courts’ also recommended setting up a Central Tax Court having all-India jurisdiction. — PTI
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Govt to set up GoM to revive Dabhol project
New Delhi, September 2 For this, the Prime Minister will constitute an empowered Group of Ministers (GoM) to recommend ways to restart the Project, which was shut down for about two years due to payment crisis. The GoM will look into various issues, including providing a Central guarantee to financial institutions for raising loans from the market needed to restart generation at the multi-billion dollar project. The decision to set up GoM was taken by the Union Cabinet at its meeting today, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters. While the Finance Ministry is looking into the entire issue, Mr Chidambaram had excused himself from even seeing the Dabhol file after assuming charge, saying that he as an advocate had earlier represented GE and Bechtel for the project. It has been reported that the Finance Ministry had proposed providing a guarantee of over Rs 3,000 crore to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to be floated by FIs to revive the project wherein the SPV would buy out offshore lenders to it. The government has also decided to make parallel efforts to resolve the ongoing legal disputes between various stake holders. The total claims lying in various courts against the Government are nearly Rs 24,000 crore. Meanwhile, the subsidiaries of GE and Bechtel have initiated arbitration proceedings against the Indian government for violating the counter guarantees for the project in the Tribunal set up in London.
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ONGC to buy stake of Cairn Energy in 2 gas fields
New Delhi, September 2 The ONGC will buy Cairn Energy’s 90 per cent stake in Block KG-DWN-98/2, where already one trillion cubic feet of gas has been found, for $85 million. The Block is next to Reliance Industries’
gas field in the Krishna Godavari basin, off the Andhra coast. The ONGC, which will get the operatorship of the Krishna Godavari basin block, would acquire 15 per cent exploration interest in Block CB/OS-2 in the Cambay basin in offshore Gujarat. It will also take a 10 per cent development interest in the Lakshmi and Gauri fields in the same block. The state-run firm already has 30 per cent interest in the Lakshmi and Gauri fields. Simultaneously, the ONGC will transfer 30 per cent interest in two exploration blocks — GV-ONN-97/1 located in Uttar Pradesh in the Ganga valley and CB-ONN-2001/1 in the Cambay basin in Gujarat to Cairn Energy. The UK firm will pay ONGC $ 0.165 million for the farm-in, Mr Aiyar said.
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Mumbai, September 2 “We are having bilateral discussions next week. We are having a flexible approach as far as flights, destinations in India and code sharing is concerned”, Rob Gurney, Head of sales and distribution of Qantas, said here today. Though the airline had withdrawn its services to Mumbai two years ago, commercial commitments made the airline come back to India as traffic had grown by 30 per cent, he said. Former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh, who was nominated the brand ambassador, was among the VIP passengers on the inaugural flight, which landed yesterday. “We are looking at 15 per cent growth per annum and a yearly traffic of about 90,000 passengers two years hence”, he said. The world’s second oldest airline, which resumed its services yesterday with non-stop Boeing 747-300 flights to India after withdrawing their services via Singapore, is to operate on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Gurney said “India is an important market and we have invested heavily in the relaunch of services to Mumbai. Qantas Manager (India and South Asia) Khurseed Lam said the education market has seen a steady growth and presently more than 10,000 students were joining Australian universities, which have realised the potential to tap the Indian market. Special packages have been extended to the student community, she added. — PTI
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Beijing, September 2 “We are willing to import more iron ore from India,” Luo Binsheng, Vice-President of China Iron and Steel Association said at the India-China Ferrous Minerals Summit. Most transactions between India and China are conducted under spot purchases or short-term contracts. — PTI
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Jindals to supply power at Rs 2 per unit
New Delhi, September 2 Announcing the financial closure, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the company Naveen Jindal said, “we shall be selling power at a rate of Rs 2 per unit. The first unit of 250 MW will be commissioned in March 2007.” He said the lower tariff of Rs 2 a unit has been possible with the company deciding not to appoint any EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contractor, in order to reduce the project cost. The power plant being set up by Jindal Power Ltd, 100 per cent subsidiary of JSPL, has also decided not to appoint any Operations and Maintenance Contractor to reduce the running cost of the plant, Jindal said adding “instead, we shall deploy our own team to operate the plant.” Estimating to give employment to about 10,000 people in the next three years, Jindal said work for 500 MW second phase would start soon and the company would kick start the negotiations with banks and FIs next month. This is the first mega power project in the private sector to have achieved financial closure for its first phase. A consortium of 12 banks and FIs has signed the financing documents for loans aggregating to Rs 1,500 crore. — PTI
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PU emerges as R&D hub
Chandigarh, September 2 Last year, R & D activities earned Rs 3.5 million for PU and the figure is likely to be higher this year. “Companies throng the university because of better infrastructure and abundance of intellectual capital,” says Prof A.K. Saihjpal, Honorary Director, Centre for Industry Institute Partnership, PU. The centre acts as an interface between the corporate world and the university. Currently, the university is busy with mega-projects worth millions. Monsanto, Panacea Biotech and Satjul Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVNL) are already getting the research done in different departments while Indian Acrylics Limited is holding preliminary inquiries. “We are looking at means to produce methyl acrylate, a raw material that is currently imported. This would reduce the manufacturing cost of acrylic fibre, our main product,” says Mr Sunil Gupta, GM (Projects), Indian Acrylics Limited. He, however, is quick to point out that the agreement with PU is still at the discussion stage and no deal has been “finalised as yet.” Mr Surjeet Singh, General Manager, Panacea Biotech, is thankful to PU for an anti-haemorrhoid drug, Thank God, a medicine used for treating piles. Panacea and PU have jointly patented this pharmaceutical product. “The scientific human capital is the best here,” he says. Panacea Biotech has projects running into millions at Department of Pharmacy, PU. Monsanto, a genetically-modified agro product major, has a Rs 7-lakh project running in the Department of Botany on the physiology of boll shedding in cotton. “The study is on how changed physiology induced by the introduction of a foreign gene can be regulated to give optimum results,” explains Prof I.S. Dua, Principal Investigator of the Bt cotton project. Prof R.K. Kakkar from the Department of Geology, who holds a SJVNL consultancy, says rock materials from Nathpa-Jakhri project are routinely received for petrographical studies. “Turbines are sensitive to rock cuttings and silt discharge and an optimum way had to be found to deal with these particles. We also suggested the right rock filling material to the SJVNL for their tunnels at Jori (Rampur), Himachal Pardesh,” he says. Some more such corporate work is expected from the Khab area on the Spiti-Sutlej confluence, according to Professor Kakkar.
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HC seeks Birlas’ will of 1981
Kolkata, September 2 The will, they claimed, prepared by M.P.Birla and Priyamvada Birla in 1981, was the original and genuine will which should be considered in deciding the succession of the M.P. Birla’s property worth Rs 5000 crore. Mr Aniyana Mitra and Mr Pratap Chatterjee, appearing on behalf of Mr Lodha, argued that the will they had submitted for probating, should be taken as the real deed document which Priyamvada had prepared shortly before her death.
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