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Rationalise oil taxes, says Plan Panel
FLAG Telecom seeks damages from VSNL
No hike in petro prices
Fiscal health of northern states improves
No conflict with FM, says Montek
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Centre mulls sops for border area industry
Essar’s plan to hike FDI in JV deferred
Escorts to sell stake in Carraro India
Ruias bid for entire Daewoo unit
BMW to start production
in India
Airlines out to woo passengers
BSE to suspend 52 cos for violating Listing Agreement
Dena Bank to launch tax-saving scheme
Indian firm set to acquire bank of Mauritius
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Rationalise oil taxes, says Plan Panel
New Delhi, August 30 The committee, which was set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prepare a roadmap for long-term integrated approach on the energy sector, submitted its report to the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia today. Releasing the report, Mr Ahluwalia said wide-ranging recommendations of the committee would help the commission to prepare the document for 11th five-year Plan. Ruling out major role for the high- priced imported gas supply in the energy sector, the committee has recommended creation of level- playing field for all energy sectors, including oil, power, coal and non-conventional energy through creation of competitive energy markets, sectoral reforms and capacity addition. Expressing concern over the high refinery margins, Mr Parikh admitted, “ the present policy has benefited the refineries in the private sector at the cost of public sector refineries, which are contributing to the supply of subsidised fuels.” The government should set up regulators for upstream and downstream oil sector, besides regulator for coal sector. He said in the short-term, government could rationalise the high taxes on petrol, diesel to deal with the volatile international crude prices, but in the long-term it might have to pass on to consumers. The report noted that to deliver a sustained growth rate of 8-10 per cent, India will have to increase its primary energy supply by 3 to 4 times and its electricity generation by 5 to 6 times of their 2003-04 levels. In the long-term, he said, we will have to move towards solar energy or nuclear energy by developing fast-breeder reactors to utilise our thorium reserves. In the Power sector, the committee has recommended metering of all free supply to the agricultural sector and to check power pilferage, differential power tariff for peak and off-peak consumption, energy conservation efforts. |
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FLAG Telecom seeks damages from VSNL
New Delhi, August 30 "Since the 90-day period permitted by Arbitration Award for negotiations, in good faith, for reasonable access charges at VSNL's Mumbai landing station is over, FLAG has approached the Tribunal for setting a time table for determination of damages due to the unlawful refusal of VSNL to grant access to FLAG from 1998 onwards," Reliance Communications informed the exchanges. On May 26, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce asked VSNL to allow FLAG access to the FEA cable landing station. FLAG can also upgrade the capacity of its FEA system at Mumbai to any level and lease the upgraded capacity to international telecom entities. It informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that the negotiations have failed due to monopolistic and anti- competitive attitude of VSNL. The failure of negotiations would harm the ITES/BPO and other user industries in India, due to the exorbitantly high bandwidth prices and landing station access charges maintained by VSNL, which lead to unrealistically high costs of international connectivity for Indian enterprises, thus resulting in higher costs for the end consumers in India, said the Anil Ambani-owned company. — PTI
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New Delhi, August 30
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Fiscal health of northern states improves
New Delhi, August 30 In a recent review meeting called by the Finance Ministry, the states claimed that after the implementation of value-added tax (VAT), and steps like swapping of high-cost debts and fiscal discipline, the fiscal situation has substantially improved as compared to situation about five years ago. But they have urged the Centre to increase transfer of funds and help them in attracting investment. For instance, the fiscal deficit of Punjab in 2001-02 which reached around 7 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP), bringing the state to the point of bankruptcy forcing it to borrow even to pay salaries of employees, has been brought down to below 4 per cent in 2005-06, and is expected to come down further to 3.49 per cent this year. Although the outstanding debt against the state increased to Rs 47,403 crore during 2005-06 from Rs 33,921 crore in 2001-02, but state Finance Minister is in a comfortable position thanks to rising revenues and state’s share in Central taxes and grants. The Congress government headed by Captain Amarinder Singh can take credit for improving the financial health despite providing funds of free power and other sops to farm sector. The outstanding debt against the state is, however, expected to cross Rs 52,000 crore at the time, when next government will take over the charge after Assembly elections. “Haryana and Himachal governments have also done well considering the fact that fiscal deficit as percentage of state domestic product has been brought down from 4.52 per cent (2001-02) to 2.03 per cent and from Rs 10.10 per cent to 4.23 per cent in 2005-06, respectively,” said a senior official in the ministry adding J&K was still lagging in meeting the targets. Praising the states, Finance Minister P. Chidambram noted that all states were holding Rs 53,756 crore as surplus money as on August 2 this year.
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No conflict with FM, says Montek
New Delhi, August 30 “The commission’s concern is to ensure adequate financial resources to achieve sustainable growth in the Plan period. Though fiscal prudence is very important it is not our major concern,” he told reporters. It would be wrong to portray that there are differences between the commission and the Finance Ministry on the issue, since the talks are at very preliminary stage. “I have not even met the Finance Minister on this issue,” he said. The Finance Minister had recently written a letter to the commission, expressing his disagreement to defer the targets on meeting fiscal deficit of 3 per cent by 2009. However, HRD Minister Arjun Singh supported the commission’s point of view, by writing another letter, saying that fiscal discipline should be projected as a constraint while providing resources to the priority sector like education. “We want to reach an agreement with the Finance Ministry, and I will soon meet Finance Minister on the issue to resolve the matter,” he said.
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Centre mulls sops for border area industry
Amritsar, August 30 While talking to The Tribune here today, Mr Kumar said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had directed him to analyse the impact of special tax benefits offered to the industries in the neighboring states of Punjab, i.e. Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, on the economy of the state. He said Punjab had suffered on account of these slews of benefits and to minimise the damage to the current state of industry, his ministry had started working on a preliminary document to offer sops in consultation with the state. The minister said the government had shown keen interest to evolve a comprehensive policy to revive the sick industry in the border districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur. He said the main thrust would also be given to encourage entrepreneurs to set up manufacturing base in the area. He said the PMO was coordinating on various development projects initiated by it in the state and the Prime Minister was likely to review it personally during his tentative visit to the state on September 27. Answering the queries on the dismal state of power scenario in the state, he said various power projects were in the pipeline, including the expansion of Mukerian and Shahpur Kandi hydroelectric projects, besides setting up a new thermal power unit in Lehra Mohabbatan. He said with the commissioning of these power projects the state would get additional power of 1800 to 2000 MW. Mr Kumar said in order to revive the sick and obsolete light engineering and foundry units in Batala, the government had initiated three-pronged strategy to upgrade these industrial units.
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Essar’s plan to hike FDI in JV deferred
New Delhi, August 30 The FIPB has sought more clarification on the holding company and has deferred the proposal till the next meeting, a Department of Telecom official said. Essar officials said the company was in the process of providing all information sought by the Board. Currently, the total foreign holding (direct and indirect) in HEL is around 68 per cent. The Ruias applied to the FIPB last month to increase Essar’s foreign holding in the joint venture Hutchsion Essar Ltd by 6.26 per cent to 22.04 per cent from the present 15.76 per cent. The entire 22.04 per cent of foreign equity component within Essar’s 33.01 per cent block will be routed through Essar Communications and its offshore subsidiaries. If Essar’s application is cleared by the FIPB, total foreign holding in HEL will go up to 74 per cent under the new foreign direct investment (FDI) norms for telecom services. — PTI
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Escorts to sell stake in Carraro India
New Delhi, August 30 ''The Board of Directors has given its consent for divestment of its shareholding in Carraro India Ltd to joint venture partner, Carraro S p A, for euros 20 million,'' a company statement said. An in-principle understanding has been reached between the company and Carraro SpA for the deal, which is subject to signing and execution of the share-purchase agreement and supply agreement. The Board has also approved an employees stock option scheme for its employees. — UNI
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Ruias bid for entire Daewoo unit
Kolkata, August 30 This puts the Ruia Group above other bidders like Tatas, Mahindras, Ford and others who have reportedly expressed interest in partial assets of the auto-making unit. The Debt Recovery Tribunal has expressed interest in selling the Daewoo unit as a whole and not in pieces. "We have bid for the Daewoo plant," Ruia Group Chairman P.K. Ruia said today. The dues of the unit with the Department of Revenue of the Union government and lenders was estimated to be about Rs 2,000 crore. In June 2005, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had laid down a formula for sharing of money raised from the auction of the plant. The market value of the 204 acre of the unit's land alone was valued between Rs 1,000-1,200 crore. — PTI
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BMW to start production
in India
New Delhi, August 30 "The first car will delivered to our dealers by February-March next year and we hope to have 8-9 dealerships across major metros by 2009," BMW India President Peter Kronschnable said at Gurgaon, where the company will be having headquarters of its Indian subsidiary. Mr Kronschnable said the company would invest 20 million euros (approx Rs 110 crore) for setting up its plant at Chennai, which would have an initial production capacity of 1,700 units per annum. He said while deliveries of the 3 series cars would start by February-March, the locally produced 5 series models would be available by May-June. "These will be available in both petrol and diesel versions and will carry a localisation of around 10 per cent to begin with," he added.
— PTI |
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Airlines out to woo passengers
New Delhi, August 30 For the convenience of tourists from September 15 the airline will launch a new daily flight from the Capital to the temple town of Khajuraho and Varanasi, also scheduled is a daily flight on the Varanasi-Kathmandu-Varanasi route, an Indian press statement said today. For the next two months, passengers traveling out of or arriving into any of the six metros of Indian can look forward to winning Haier appliances as prizes under the “Fly Indian Get Haier” scheme. Meanwhile, Air Sahara today announced a new scheme, which offers passengers unlimited flying to destinations on their network, including international ones, on the payment of a fixed sum. Under the scheme, passengers can fly to any destination on the airline’s domestic network for a year on paying Rs 699 for 365 days i.e. by depositing a sum of over Rs 2.55 lakh. The airline is also offering a package for 90 days at the rate of Rs 799 each day, for 60 days at Rs 899 and for 30 days at Rs 999. For international destinations like Singapore, Kathmandu and Colombo, the amount goes up by Rs 100 per day. Passengers, however, will have to pay the taxes for travel on tickets booked under the scheme. Bookings for the new scheme will open tomorrow for travel beginning from September 4. Airline President Alok Sharma told reporters here that frequent flyers would be benefited from the scheme.
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BSE to suspend 52 cos for violating Listing Agreement
Mumbai, August 30 Trading in the securities of these 52 companies will be suspended with effect from September 20 this year on account of non-compliance with the provisions of the Listing Agreement, the release added. In case the companies comply with the agreement before September 20, trading in securities of such companies will be suspended for five days. On the other hand, if any company complies with all provisions of the Listing Agreement after the date of suspension (September 20) but within one month of date of suspension (upto October), trading in securities of such company will remain suspended up to October 20, 2006.
— UNI |
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Dena Bank to launch tax-saving scheme
Mumbai, August 30 The scheme, in which the minimum and maximum investment limits are Rs 100 and Rs 1 lakh, respectively, has a five-year lock-in period and provides tax relief to investors under Section 80 C of the Income Tax Act. The interest available here is 8 per cent while for those in the senior citizens category, the interest is 8.50 per cent. This works out to an annualised yield of 9.72 per cent and 10.46 per cent, respectively, for the two categories. The bank will also be raising its interest rates on deposits with effect from September 1 by 50 bps for a tenure of 2 years to less than 3 years. Accordingly, for an amount up to Rs 15 lakh, the rate stands revised to 7 per cent from 6.50 per cent, while for sums above Rs 15 lakh, the rate has been upped to 7.25 per cent from 6.75 per cent. For five other maturities, the bank has increased its rates by 25 bps.
— PTI |
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Indian firm set to acquire bank of Mauritius
New Delhi, August 30 A top Mauritius official said, "an Indian company has won the bid for acquiring majority stake of First City Bank (FCB)." "The Indian company is not a bank, but from the financial services sector," the official said without giving details. This is the second Mauritius bank to be acquired by an Indian entity after the SBI bought 51 per cent stake in Indian Ocean International Bank last year.
— PTI |
Moser Baer plan Godrej Lifespace Infotech-IBM pact TDSAT chief ONGC Chairman Ranbaxy Labs Indo Asian pact |
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