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No decision on selling stake in PSUs
ONGC declares 250 pc interim dividend
Tata Chem buys stake in UK co
ADB approves $971.2 m aid package |
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Hyundai to roll out 4 models in 2006, plans unit at Chennai
Scorpio prices up
Unilever signs contract with IBM
Sasken loses case against 3G.Com, told to pay $1.15 m
EU permits Oracle to buy Siebel
Gold shoots up
Govt out to streamline FBT
IRDA defers liberalising motor vehicle insurance
Hearing on NTPC-RIL dispute on January 30
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No decision on selling stake in PSUs
New Delhi, December 23 “Anyone is free to speculate on what he likes. Anyone is within his rights to speculate,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told newspersons here when asked about reports on the issue. The minister was briefing the media on the decisions taken by of the Cabinet at its meeting last night. Reports said the Cabinet, at its meeting last night, has decided to sell a part of its residual stake in five non-navratana PSUs — Balco, IBP, VSNL, CMC and IPCL. Mr Dasmunsi’s assertion that there was no Cabinet decision on the sale of residual stake in these key PSUs came on being repeatedly asked to comment on the Reports. A report, quoting highly placed sources, however, said it might be a while before the government formally announced a stake sale in the five PSUs as it wants to discuss the issue with its Left allies. The government wants to avoid a confrontation with its partners during the winter session, which ends today, the report stated. — UNI
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ONGC declares 250 pc interim dividend
New Delhi, December 23 In FY 2004-05, ONGC had declared an interim dividend of 200 per cent and a total dividend of 400 per cent amounting to Rs 5,704 crore. In absolute terms, this interim dividend works out to a payout of Rs 3,564.82 crore (against a paid-up capital of Rs 1,425.93 crore), including Government of India share (74.13 per cent) of Rs 2,642.60 crore. In addition, ONGC will be paying a dividend tax on the above, which works out to be Rs 500 crore. It has also been decided to pay the dividend immediately after the record date of December 28, 2005, without waiting for the mandatory 30 days period. The net profit (PAT) for the half-year for FY 2005-06 is Rs 7,457 crore, against Rs 5,692 crore for corresponding period previous year. Speaking on the occasion, C&MD of ONGC Subir Raha said notwithstanding the continuing uncertainty on impact of subsidies from ONGC to downstream marketing PSUs, the Board decided to positively respond to shareholders’ expectations in a regime of firm crude oil prices. — UNI
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Tata Chem buys stake in UK co
Mumbai, December 23 The Tata Group company has entered into two agreements for acquiring the majority stake in the British chemical company, it said today. Tata Chemicals, through a subsidiary, has entered into two agreements, one with Wayland Investments Ltd and the other with Barclays Bank Ltd, to purchase the majority stake in the UK company, it said. Tata Chemicals didn’t provide details on how it would fund the deal. Though the company had announced the purchase on November 24, it did not provide any details of the stake size or financial consideration.
— PTI
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ADB approves $971.2 m aid package for India
Manila, December 23 The package comprises a financing facility of up to 750 million dollars for the country’s rural roads programme and a 221.2 million-dollar loan to upgrade urban infrastructure in Kerala, an ADB statement said. Both will carry market rates. The multi-tranche financing facility would finance investments in New Delhi’s rural roads investment scheme that aims to provide all-weather road links to unserved villages in rural India, home to 70 per cent of the population. The total project cost is estimated at 30 billion dollars, leaving a huge funding gap, the bank added. — AFP
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Hyundai to roll out 4 models in 2006, plans unit at Chennai
Chandigarh, December 23 This was stated by Mr N. Raja, General Manager, Sales, Northern Region, here today. He was here to inaugurate the World of Wheels roadshow organised by the company. Two of the cars — the luxury sedan, Azera and the sports coupe, Tuscani — which are likely to hit the Indian market in the second half of 2006, were showcased at the roadshow. These were specially shipped from Korea for the show. While Azera would be priced at around Rs 20 lakh, Tuscani would cost nearly Rs 25 lakh. Mr Raja also announced that Hyundai proposed to launch two other models - one priced between a Santro Xing and Getz and another priced between an Accent and Elantra. He, however, said that there was no plan to launch a model priced lower than Santro Xing. The General Manager said that Hyundai now had a market share of 40 per cent in India. “We now plan to increase our capacity by constructing a new plant in Chennai, which will have an additional capacity of 1.50 lakh cars a year,” he informed.
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Scorpio prices up
Mumbai, December 23 The new pricing would apply to vehicles delivered to customers from January 1.
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Unilever signs contract with IBM
London, December 23 Financial terms were not disclosed although Unilever said cost savings under the 7-year outsourcing contract would contribute to a targeted 700 million euros ($831.4 million) of annual savings. Unilever said IBM would provide a number of financial services from IBM centres in Portugal, Poland and India. Around Unilever 750 jobs are likely to be affected. “This change will affect quite a number of our employees in Europe,” said Kees van der Graaf, president of Unilever Europe. “When jobs are affected we will do our best to find alternative employment,” he added in a statement.
— Reuters
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Sasken loses case against 3G.Com, told to pay $1.15 m
Mumbai, December 23 The company, which lost the case against 3G.Com in the London Court of International Arbitration, would have to pay $ 173,760 as legal and other The company would also have to bear the total cost of arbitration amounting to GBP 168,150.57 as directed by the court. The further course of action in the matter, including the filing of appeal in the appropriate courts, would be decided later, the
company said. — PTI
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EU permits Oracle to buy Siebel
Brussels, December 23 EU regulators said they examined the deal carefully to see how powerful the new company would be in the European market for customer relation software and if the tie-up would cause wide-ranging “conglomerate effects.” “The Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition,” it said. California-based Oracle agreed in September to acquire Siebel, whose products help manage companies’ relations with customers. The deal is part of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s drive to overtake SAP AG as the world’s largest maker of business applications software, which automates a wide range of administrative tasks. It won US antitrust approval from the Department of Justice last month. — AP
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Mumbai, December 23
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Govt out to streamline FBT
New Delhi, December 23 Stating this at a conference on pre-Budget issues in direct taxes organised by Assocham), CBDT Chairman M.S. Darda said the tax collections had so far reached 26 per cent of the target. About the vacancies of Chief Commissioner in the Department of Income Tax, the CBDT Chairman said 35 posts would be filled within 10 days. On the issue of FBT, the CBDT Chairman said the government was in the process of making classifications as to which specific business expenditures should attract FBT. The government will come out with specifications either at the time of Budget proposals for 2006-07 or through another notification, hinted Mr. Darda. He also announced that the Finance Ministry would launch a scheme on April 1, 2006,to collect taxes from large manufacturing units whose tax liabilities exceeded Rs 5 crore through a one-window system in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore. The CBDT Chairman said the government was progressing well on accepting the E-filing of returns. Assocham President Anil K. Agarwal sought the withdrawal of FBT and suggested that the revenue losses on account of its withdrawal should be off-set through the imposition of 2 per cent additional income tax on industry and other taxpayers. Mr. Pallav Gupta, Co-Chairman, Assocham Direct Taxes Committee, also sought the withdrawal of FBT as it will lead to multiple legal complications. Even a country like Australia has withdrawn it and India should follow suit.
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IRDA defers liberalising motor vehicle insurance
New Delhi, December 23 Minister of State of Finance S.S.Palanimanickam informed the Rajya Sabha that “the IRDA has drawn up a map for de-tariffing all segments of non-life insurance business, including motor vehicle insurance, with effect from January 1, 2007.” According to official sources, the IRDA had to postpone its decision on de-tariffing because insurance companies did not provided it with the required data showing the claims they had received on each model of vehicle, each category of driver and each geographical area over the past five years and due to strong opposition from truck operator unions. However, industry sources said that de-tariffing would have meant that the premium paid by car owners would have been directly related to the number of claims made, the model of car, and the area in which they were driving the vehicles. For insurance companies, this would have meant freedom to charge premiums based on their perception of risk on each type of vehicle. Mr Palanimanickam admitted that IRDA had also recommended an increase in the FDI limit to 49 per cent for the insurance sector in the context of “constraints on domestic promoters in infusing capital to meet solvency requirements.” For the de-tariffing of insurance premium, the insurance companies, especially the public sector ones, have claimed that it would be close to impossible to compile such large amounts of data withing a short span from the thousands of branches around the country. While de-tariffing would have made insuring cars a lot cheaper, chances are that it would have also made insuring a commercial vehicle like a taxi, a bus or a truck twice as expensive because these vehicles are more prone to accidents. Sources from insurance companies said there had been considerable opposition to de-tariffing from truck operator unions and state transport departments. Insurance companies say that until de-tariffing comes into play, they will continue to record losses in the motor insurance business as they are not allowed to raise premiums to compensate heavy claims. Public sector companies have reported up to 300 per cent more claims in motor vehicle insurance as against premium collection. Keeping in view the strong opposition, the IRDA has now charted out the roadmap for a free-rate regime, excluding motor portfolio. While the fire and engineering businesses would be soon freed, motor insurance would be kept out for the time being.
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Hearing on NTPC-RIL dispute on January 30
Mumbai, December 23 Mr Justice S.K. Vazifdar, after hearing counsel of the two companies in his chamber this afternoon, ordered the adjournment, according to NTPC lawyer Srikant Doizode. He said RIL would file a written reply to the NTPC’s petition on January 16, while the NTPC would submit a rejoinder on January 27 and the hearing would start on January 30. The High Court, which goes for a winter recess tomorrow, will reopen on January 9.
— UNI
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Inflation falls Forex reserves UTI MF scheme Tata Tele Cadbury unit ABN Amro Gold mining co Mico-Bosch SBI Blue Chip Fund |
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Chandigarh, December 23
