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India offers sops to ASEAN to save FTA
SBI increases deposit rates
Essar rejigs shipping, logistics biz
Bajaj Hindustan gets duty relief after 26 years
Bajaj, Hero Honda set for price war
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PTDC to sell six properties
Steel Strips plans wheel plant in Jharkhand
3G spectrum: TRAI moots Rs 425-cr fee per circle
FDI inflows in Q1 up by 47 pc to $1.74 b
ONGC to bid for gas project in Abu Dhabi
Vestas to set up wind power farms in HP
Ford looking to close factories, slash jobs
Gold plunges to six-week low
China to cut import tarrifs on Indian goods
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India offers sops to ASEAN to save FTA
New Delhi, August 18 Concerned over the fallout, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath will attend the ministerial-level meeting in Kuala Lumpur next week to put India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement negotiations back on the rails. Some developed countries have already blamed India for the failure of the Doha round of WTO talks. As India has increased the level of tariff reduction from 69 per cent to 94.6 per cent of ASEAN’s exports to India at the insistence of ASEAN, Mr Nath said he now hoped to see the FTA with a crucial trading bloc concluded by December this year. Mr Nath told reporters that negotiations with ASEAN were at an official level and would get a boost from next week’s ministerial level meeting. The India-ASEAN FTA negotiations ran into rough weather after New Delhi submitted a negative list of around 1400 items. The list, on which there will be no tariff cuts, was subsequently reduced to about 560 items. But ASEAN was insisting that the list be reduced further to less than 100 items, which India has virtually ruled out. “This is not possible,” said the minister, adding that while India started with 1,400 items, ASEAN started with 100 and “this is what negotiations are all about.” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has reportedly asked the Commerce Minister to take effective steps since the FTA with ASEAN was of paramount importance, both politically and economically, and India could not afford to lose it. India has offered to cut import tariff on sensitive products like palm oil, tea and pepper from ASEAN members. The reduction proposed on refined palm oil is from 90 per cent to 60 per cent, on crude palm oil from 80 per cent to 50 per cent, on pepper from 70 per cent to 50 per cent and on black tea from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. |
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SBI increases deposit rates
Mumbai, August 18 As per the revised rates, to come into effect tomorrow, fixed deposits would now attract a maximum of 8.5 per cent interest under super saver term deposit for senior citizens followed by 8 per cent interest under the same scheme for others. The revision in rate comes less than a month of the RBI hiking its short-term transaction rates with banks (repo and reverse repo rates) by 0.25 per cent during the first quarter (2006-07) review of the credit policy that led to announcements by banks to increase their lending rates. Under the new dispensation, fixed deposits would now get a maximum interest of 7.25 per cent while senior citizens would get a higher rate of 7.75 per cent for deposits of five to 10 years. As per the latest revision, the second time since May 1, the SBI would give an interest rate of 7 per cent, up from 6.5 per cent, for deposits of three to five years. Similarly, for term deposits maturing in between one to three years, the interest rates have been increased by 0.5 per cent to 6.75 per cent. However, term deposits of less than one year would be eligible for a hike of only 0.25 per cent. Deposits of more than Rs 1 crore maturing in between seven and 14 days would invite an interest of 3.50 per cent, an increase of 0.5 per cent. For senior citizens, the interest rates on fixed deposits have been hiked by 0.5 per cent for maturities ranging between 1-5 years. The revised interest rate on Super Saver Term Deposit will come into effect tomorrow. The tenure for this is between six and 10
years. — PTI |
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Essar rejigs shipping, logistics biz
New Delhi, August 18 “In order to provide a sharper focus to its business and increase shareholder value, the company has formed a fully owned subsidiary, Essar Shipping and Logistics Ltd (ESLL), registered in Cyprus,” Essar Global Ltd said in a statement. As per the re-organisation plan, ESLL would have three operating companies under its umbrella - Essar Shipping Ltd, Essar Logistics Ltd and Vadinar Oil Terminal Ltd. ESLL would hold 77 per cent in Essar Shipping Ltd and a 100 per cent stake in the other two companies. The re-organisation would make ESLL a leading integrated logistics provider for steel mills, oil refineries and thermal power generation companies across the world, it said. Essar Logistics Ltd would carry out the business of logistics management, trans-shipment and port services while Vadinar Oil Terminal Ltd (VOTL) would focus on ports and terminals. VOTL has set up a 32 million tonne terminal facility in Vadinar, Gujarat, which would be ready by September this year. Essar Global Ltd, the parent company of Essar Steel, Essar Power and Essar Oil, has interests in the infrastructure sector, telecommunication and technology and industrial construction and engineering, with an asset base in excess of $6
billion. — PTI |
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Bajaj Hindustan gets duty relief after 26 years
New Delhi, August 18 The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has quashed the directions of Lucknow circle excise officials to the company for paying differential duty of Rs 30 lakh during March, 1978, to November, 1980. Significantly, the tribunal order comes 13 years after a Supreme Court judgement on a similar issue gave benefits to other sugar companies. The Shishir Bajaj-led company, which has most of its units in UP, had challenged the claims of the excise authorities regarding the payment of additional taxes. In the late 1970s, sale and distribution of sugar was largely under the control of the Central Government. However, as per an agreement between producers and the government, the sugar companies were allowed to sell some part in the open market at their discretion. This was known as “free-sale” sugar. But the government remained the major buyer and fixed a statutory price for purchase of “levy sugar”. Opposing the levy price fixed by the government as uneconomical, the company moved the High Court and obtained relief. Even after winning the case, the company continued to pay excise duty on the basis of “levy sugar” — that is, on lower prices fixed by government. Later, the tax authorities demanded additional differential duty of Rs 30 lakh for the period, but the company challenged this direction in the CESTAT. During the proceedings in the tribunal, the company cited the Supreme Court directions on similar issues. In September 1993, the Supreme Court had in a case said that “there is no central tax duty liability on the additional amount of price received”. This guideline set by the apex court was followed in other cases as well, Bajaj Hindustan argued. The Ministry of Food had also in September, 2001, advised excise officials to dispose all duty demands relating to that period. The tribunal agreed with the sugar major’s contention and rejected the duty demand by excise
officials. — PTI |
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Bajaj, Hero Honda set for price war
New Delhi, August 18 “In the past few years we have not have any special promotions for the festive season, while our competitors were having a field day by offering discounts. This time we have decided to offer our customers benefit of the festive season by cutting the price of Platina,” Bajaj Auto Vice-President Marketing and Sales S. Sridhar said. Asked by how much the company would cut price of the top-end 100cc model, he said the company was yet to take a final decision on the quantity and the period of the offer. “It is certain that we will cut the price only on Platina, which at Rs 37,000 and is costlier than our competitor’s basic 100 cc model at Rs 34,000. But we will not touch the prices of other models,” he said. Hero Honda has also drawn out strategies to meet take the competition head on. “Usually on festive seasons we have always something to offer to our customer. This time around also it will not be different,” Hero Honda Motors Vice-President Marketing Anil Dua
said. — PTI |
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PTDC to sell six properties
Chandigarh, August 18 Top officials in the PTDC informed TNS that with the selling of these properties, the corporation would be embarking on a new course for development of tourism in the state. The complete sellout of the properties will be completed by November, but vacant land at some districts will remain under the possession of the PTDC. "We have decided to build properties on our land in joint venture with private companies, who will operate these properties," said a senior official. In the first phase, the properties at Neelon (Ludhiana), Madhopur (near Pathankot), Shambhu (Patiala), Moga, Nangal (Ropar), Sanghol (Fatehgarh Sahib) and the holiday homes (at Manali, Goa, Mussoorie and Dharamsala) were sold off for Rs 26.35 crore. "Other than this, we have decided to convert the tourist complex at Aam Khas Bagh into a circuit house for Fatehgarh Sahib and the one at Wagah into a tourist facility. The land allotted to the PTDC for setting up tourist complexes at Mohali and Dasuya has been returned back to the departments (to PUDA in Mohali and PSEB in Dasuya) who had given us the land," said Mr Jagjit Puri, Director, PTDC. He said in the second phase, tenders have been called in and the properties would be sold based on the highest bid received. "A committee headed by the Chief Secretary, Punjab, will be allotting the bids. A Delhi-based independent agency, has already made an independent valuation of the properties and the reserve price has been fixed accordingly," said Mr Puri. He added that more than 90 per cent of the employees had already opted for voluntary retirement. |
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Steel Strips plans wheel plant in Jharkhand
Mumbai, August 18 The company would cater to Tata Motors’ increasing demand for MCV and HCV wheels, Steel Strips said. Tata Motors has already issued a letter of comfort to this effect, it added. Earlier in September, 2005, the Board of Directors of the company approved the putting up of a joint venture company for setting up a 0.8 million wheel capacity manufacturing plant at Jamshedpur. This project was strategically located to cater to Tata Motors’ growing requirement and also using the nearby ports for
exports. — PTI |
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3G spectrum: TRAI moots Rs 425-cr fee per circle
New Delhi, August 18 3G services, a high-end value- added service, will allow operators to offer mobile broadband services like high speed Internet, video, video streaming, audio among others. At a meeting today with the industry, where only COAI was present as an association, but members of the other association AUSPI were present in their individual capacity, the regulator broached the European model, which comes to Rs 85 crore per mega hertz per service area. According to sources, the regulator brought up the idea for consultation among the operators that calls for extending the same model to India where Rs 85 crore could be charged per 1 Mhz per operator per service area (psa). Since a minimum 5 Mhz of spectrum is to be allocated to each operator, the cost per operator psa to avail this much spectrum will be about Rs 425 crore per service area. Sources present in the meeting said that the TRAI suggested that this way about Rs 425 crore per operator psa could be considered as an entry fee for availing of 3G spectrum per operator. The total cost per operator would come around a whopping Rs 10,000 crore for any player who applies for an all-India 3G licence if TRAI's model is put to action on auctioning. Expectedly, it was strongly opposed by operators who said that in a poor country like India this is not at all affordable. The COAI put forth its view that the government should discover the cost of farming of spectrum, which should be around Rs 2,000 crore and divide it among the operators to raise the amount. But TRAI's last-ditch efforts to effect an amicable and workable consensus between the warring parties of GSM and CDMA-based mobile operators over the 3G spectrum allocation and pricing issue met with failure today over lack of consensus on either of the much-discussed issues. — PTI
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FDI inflows in Q1 up by 47 pc to $1.74 b
New Delhi, August 18 "FDI inflows rose to $1.74 billion in April-June this year compared to $1.18 billion in the same period last fiscal," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told reporters here. He said the equity component of FDI inflows in June 2006 grew by 102 per cent to $534 million, as against $264 million in June last year. "June has been a hot month for FDI flows... what is most important is that most of the flows were in manufacturing and were essentially first mile investments," he said, indicating that investments would only increase in subsequent quarters. Mr Kamal Nath, who had earlier set a target of $10 billion FDI in 2006-07, compared to $7.7 billion last fiscal, said one needs to worry if they were last mile investments as it would have meant tapering off. Some of the major new investments expected in the current year included US car giant General Motors' manufacturing facility in Maharasthra at a cost of $300 million. Besides, Nissan and Suzuki of Japan have announced a total investment of between $700-800 million over the next three years, Mitsubishi Chemicals has approved $370 million expansion plan at Haldia and Japanese car major Honda is investing $200 million, he said. The top 10 investing countries in India were Mauritius, USA, Japan, Netherlands, UK, Germany, Singapore, France, South Korea and Switzerland, he said, adding total FDI inflows have risen about 65 per cent in the past two years. A business delegation would visit Taiwan later this month to attract investments in electronic hardware, textile machinery and leather goods, he added.
— PTI |
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ONGC to bid for gas project in Abu Dhabi
New Delhi, August 18 ONGC is in competition with ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, Total of France, Occidental of US, Enio of Italy, Russia's Lukoil and China's Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) for partnering Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) in developing sour gas reserves, sources said. ADNOC, which had last month invited international firms to partner it in developing sour gas reserves, aims at setting up a new operating company in partnership to extract, process and supply about 3 billion cubic feet per day of sour gas to domestic markets.
— PTI |
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Vestas to set up wind power farms in HP
New Delhi, August 18 “In the Himalyan belt, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal have certain pockets with high wind velocity, where small wind power machines can be set up to generate power. We have identified certain locations like Theog, Phagu and areas in Kangra valley where wind power plants would be set up in the coming days,” said Mr Rakesh Bakshi, Managing Director of the company here today. Indeed, he said, only small wind machines can be installed at these locations, but it will help provide almost free power without environmental damages. The company has also set up some wind farms in Rajasthan and has plans to expand the infrastructure. He said Vestas would be investing over Rs 500 crore this year in Maharashtra to set up wind farms for more than 100 MW capacity. The company has also acquired land in Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat and investment of over Rs 9,000 million is envisaged during 2006-08. |
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Ford looking to close factories, slash jobs
Washington, August 18 The final and specific details of the automaker’s plans are yet to be announced but Ford’s cuts are likely to be confined to the US and perhaps to a plant in Canada. Chairman Bill Ford is under pressure to speed up cost cutting after Ford Motors reported nearly a $255 million loss in the second quarter and “worse than expected” sales in July, The Wall Street Journal said in a report today. Ford could cut North American white-collar costs by about 30 per cent but the final figures could be less if the automaker can find savings in other areas— reductions in compensation and benefits, including pensions, the journal reported quoting industry insiders. The company, which has about 35,000 salaried workers in the US, is also reported to be looking at white collar cuts through attrition and voluntary departures.
— PTI |
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Gold plunges to six-week low
New Delhi, August 18 Trading sentiment turned bearish on reports that the metal traded near a three-week low in Asia as a drop in energy costs this week eroded the appeal of bullion as a hedge against inflation. The weakness was felt in the domestic market here as standard gold and ornaments plunged by Rs 255 each at Rs 9,420 and Rs 9,270 per 10 gm, respectively.
— PTI |
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China to cut import tarrifs on Indian goods
Beijing, August 18 Products that will come under the new arrangement include agricultural products, medicines, chemicals, textiles, metal products, mechanical and electrical products, motor vehicles and spare parts.
— PTI |
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