 |
|
|
Banks responsible for recovery agents: RBI
Civil aviation gets boost
Pak allows Afghanistan land-route wheat import from India
New telcos get spectrum in Orissa
Pass ADC relief to consumers: Govt
Cars set to be dearer
Reliance offers LPG franchise to erstwhile petro dealers
Rupee tumbles to 5-week low
|
|
Reliance Globalcom buys eWave World
Technical Snag
GM loses top spot to Toyota
Corporate Results
|
|
Banks responsible for recovery agents: RBI
Mumbai, April 24 “The banks are advised to ensure that contract with the recovery agents do not induce adoption of uncivilised, unlawful or questionable behaviour or recovery process,” the apex bank said in its guidelines on engagement of such agents. It cautioned banks that the rise in the number of disputes and litigations related to recovery practices in the recent past and the consequent adverse publicity could result in “serious reputation risks” for the entire banking sector. In fresh guidelines issued here, the central bank said, some banks set very stiff recovery targets or offer high incentives to recovery agents, which induce them to use intimidatory and questionable methods for recovery of dues. The RBI said, complaints received by it regarding violation of the above guidelines and adoption of abusive practices followed by the recovery agents would be viewed seriously. It might consider imposing a ban on a bank from engaging recovery agents in a particular area, either jurisdictional or functional, for a limited period. In case of persistent breach of guidelines, it might consider extending the period or the area of ban. Similar supervisory action could be attracted when the high courts or the Supreme Court pass strictures or impose penalties against any bank or its directors, officers or agents with regard to policy, practice and procedure related to the recovery process. The final guidelines were released after the apex bank had received opinion on its draft guidelines issued after the mid-term review of Annual Policy for 2007-08. In the review, the RBI had felt need for revising the policy, practice and procedure involved in engaging recovery agents by banks in India in view of rise in number of disputes and litigations against banks for engaging such agents in recent past and adverse impact it would have on the banking system as a whole. — Agencies
|
|
Civil aviation gets boost
New Delhi, April 24 The Union Cabinet in its meeting here chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan gave the approval for the setting up of new Greenfield airports as well as private airports, airstrips and helipads which would go a long way in establishing India as a major economic power in the world. There are already a number of cases pending with the ministry of civil aviation seeking licences for private landing strips and helipads. But in the absence of any concrete policy, it was not able to give any go ahead. The decision would help big industrialists and even hospitals to have their private landing strips putting India at par with the developed nations. As per the decision of the Cabinet, new airports can come up within 150 km of the other existing airport. Besides, the government has also given the ministry of civil aviation authority to decide on giving licence for setting up of new private airports, airstrips and helipads. The policy would pave way for new airports to come up in cities clogged by heavy air traffic. Proposal for such airports would have to be approved by a specially appointed steering committee headed by the civil aviation secretary. “The committee shall consider all relevant facts and circumstances, including contractual liabilities, if any,” a civil aviation ministry statement said. For new airports beyond 150 km, no Cabinet approval would be required and the directorate general of civil aviation would scrutinise the proposals. Incidentally, globally several metropolitan cities have more than one airport that prevents traffic congestion as is currently being seen in Delhi and Mumbai. India’s Greenfield airport policy has been under consideration for over an year as an inter-ministerial group was examining some contentious legal and technical aspects. The government has envisioned investment close to $9 billion (Rs 36,000 crore) to develop about 100 small and Greenfield airports in the country during the 11th Plan period (2007-2012). The government expects that the private sector would contribute about Rs 24,000 crore and the state-owned Airports’ Authority of India would pitch in with the remaining Rs 12,000 crore.
|
|
|
Pak allows Afghanistan land-route wheat
Islamabad, April 24 Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani allowed the imports after Kabul requested permission from Islamabad, food and agriculture minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told the National Assembly last night. Afghanistan had made a request for importing wheat from India via Pakistan several years ago and Gillani had agreed in principle to allow imports through the Wagah border during his meeting with visiting Afghan foreign minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, the Dawn newspaper quoted sources as saying. The move was prompted by the smuggling of 1.7 million tonnes of wheat from Pakistan to neighbouring countries, particularly Afghanistan, during the current fiscal. The smuggling had created a flour shortage within Pakistan, the sources said. The sources said Pakistan was apprehensive about possible repercussions of this decision for domestic consumers as Indian wheat is reportedly infected by a disease. Food and agriculture mKhan told the National Assembly that the government has decided to establish a strict system to monitor the smuggling of wheat into Afghanistan. Pakistan is ready to meet Afghanistan's wheat demand but the neighbouring country has to stop its smuggling, he said. — PTI
|
|
New telcos get spectrum in Orissa
New Delhi, April 24 Earlier, the DoT had distributed radio waves in Tamil Nadu. Five new players — Videocon-promoted Datacom, Idea Cellular, realty major Unitech, Swan Telecom and Loop Telecom — have been given start-up GSM spectrum of 4.4 MHz in the Orissa circle, official said. They also informed that communication and IT minister A. Raja today signed the file giving green signal to allocate GSM radio frequency to new players. The DoT is also looking at other circles where spectrum is available in abundance and can be allocated to all the aspirants simultaneously.
— PTI |
|
Pass ADC relief to consumers: Govt
New Delhi, April 24 The levy (access deficit charge), which the private operators paid to BSNL for taking up rural telephony, has been withdrawn from April 1. Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, telecom minister A Raja said the phasing out of ADC by TRAI would lead to a gain of about Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore to the private firms. The reason behind TRAI’s decision was to benefit the consumers and call tariffs reduction, he informed. If the gains are not passed on to the consumers, the government will take notice of it, the minister said. Benefit to private operators must reflect on tariff. If not, the government may take action. The response was to the allegation by Amar Singh of the Samajwadi Party that companies like Airtel and Vodafone had formed a cartel and were profiteering from withdrawal of ADC. The minister, however, expressed concern over the impact withdrawal of ADC would have on BSNL and assured that the loss to the firm would be compensated from the universal obligation fund. The minister also stated that in one year rural teledensity would go up. ADC was being charged at a rate of 0.75 per cent of adjusted gross revenue of telecom operators.
|
|
Cars set to be dearer
New Delhi, April 24 Citing increase in input cost as the main reason, the car manufacturers would be raising prices at a time when the industry is witnessing a slowdown. Apart from rising input costs, rising interest rates and lack of availability of retail loans has added to the woes of the car industry. Indication for the increase in the prices was taken from industry leader Maruti “We will increase the prices of cars in next few weeks,” head (marketing and sales), Maruti, Mayank Pareek said. Maruti managing director S. Nakanishi said: “We are negotiating with our vendors and steel suppliers. We will try to absorb the maximum impact of the increase in raw material costs. Then we will decide on price increase.” Incidentally, available figures say the passenger car segment grew by 12.17 per cent in 2007-08 with 15,47,985 units being sold in the domestic market as compared to 13,79,979 the previous year. According to the latest Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers data, for the first time exports of passenger vehicles crossed 2 lakh units in 2007-08 and ended the year with 2,17,054 units as against 1,98,452 units in 2006-07. According to sources at General Motors (India), prices of cars would be raised by Rs 3,000 to Rs 15,000. Premium carmaker Honda Siel Cars (India) is expected to revise the prices next month by Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. |
|
Reliance offers LPG franchise to
Chandigarh, April 24 Over 1,400 retail outlets of Reliance were closed down earlier this month as the company decided to restrict the supply of petrol and diesel at their retail outlets because of a huge price differential between the fuel sold through their outlets and fuel sold at the outlets of other public sector oil companies. Talking to TNS here today, M.N. Chaini, president, corporate affairs, Reliance Industries, said the company has already initiated talks with the ministry of petroleum, demanding a level-playing field with other oil companies in the public sector. “When Reliance Industries had forayed into the petroleum retail business in 2005, there was not much price differential in our products and the products of other oil companies. We had slowly gained a good market share, but as the price differential increased, we began losing out business. Till the government does not step in and remove the anomaly, we have restricted the supply of petrol and diesel to our outlets, and are offering them a 12.5 per cent return on their investment,” he added. Chaini, who is also the president of Indian Merchants Chamber, was in town to participate in an interactive session with businessmen at the PHD Chamber here. He said though the LPG distributorship was not as profitable as a petroleum dealership, the company had made this gesture on a goodwill basis. “We are also considering to offer these dealers a JV with Reliance Retail,” he added. While the price differential for petrol is Rs 12.24 per litre in Punjab, diesel sold through the Reliance outlets is Rs 4.82 per litre higher than the diesel sold by other oil companies like Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum. Earlier, Reliance Industries had been claiming that there was a minimal difference in their fuel prices when compared to the premium fuels of other oil companies, but now Reliance petrol and diesel is still about Rs 10 per litre and Rs 4 per litre, respectively, more expensive than the premium fuel of other companies. Reliance Industries had been granted market rights for operating 5,849 retail outlets across the country and it had opened over 1,400 fuel retail outlets. Because of the price differential, the company’s market share had been dwindling over the past two years and the Reliance market share stood at 3 per cent in petrol and 2.5 per cent in diesel. In Punjab, the company’s market share in petrol declined from 3 per cent in 2005-06 to 1.5 per cent now, while the diesel market share has gone down from 6 per cent to less than 1 per cent during the same period.
|
|
Rupee tumbles to 5-week low
Mumbai, April 24 Forex dealers said the local currency buckled under pressure after a promising start at 40.00/01 a dollar as oil refiners frantically covered dollars to meet their month-end import bills amid inadequate supplies. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the rupee moved in a wide range of 40.00 and 40.1850 during the day as all factors worked against the Indian unit. Foreign banks too bought dollars heavily during the day, said dealers from private banks.
— PTI |
|
Reliance Globalcom buys eWave World
Mumbai, April 24 Speaking to reporters here today, Punit Garg, CEO of Reliance Globalcom, said the company will fund the acquisition through internal accruals. He said the company would invest about $500 million over the next couple of years to build and acquire WiMAX networks in emerging markets in different continents. The acquisition of eWave is of great significance to Reliance Communications as it will be able to reach out to millions of customers in over 50 countries and offer broadband service. eWave World holds Wimax licences and has received spectrum to commence WiMAX service in several countries.
— PTI |
|
Technical Snag
Ludhiana, April 24 As freight corridor is located in Ludhiana, the CFS here caters to the entire state. However, due to the non-functioning of the primary server, those engaged in export and import are suffering heavy revenue losses. The department also faces a danger of damage to the data in the server. Goods carriers have lined up outside the container depot here and for about a week now, work has come to a halt. When contacted, the department officials said manual processing was being done and the backlog would be cleared at the earliest. Industry, however, is not only suffering penalties on account of the delay, but also the exporters are unable to meet their orders in time and fear that many orders may get cancelled. The primary server, which was installed more than seven years ago, needs replacement and on account of increase in export, is unable to contain and process heavy data. Sources said Wipro, which was provided the contract for annual maintenance, wrote to the department stating that the server was in no position to be repaired or maintained. “We have been urging the authorities to replace the server for almost three years. For the last more than a week, the work has totally stopped. Those who have sent their goods are forced to keep them outside the container depot due to unavailability of space and those who have managed to get inside are paying extra godown rent as they are not getting clearances. Transporters are irked and industry is facing heavy revenue losses," said S.C. Ralhan, a Ludhiana-based exporter.
|
|
|
Detroit, April 24 But GM officials refused to concede that they would lose the race for the year after having narrowly held onto their 76-year title of world's largest automaker by sales by a margin of just a few thousand vehicles in 2007. "We were also behind Toyota in the first quarter last year," Michael DiGiovanni, GM's director of industry and market analysis, said in a conference call. GM's January-through-March sales slipped 0.6 per cent to 2.25 million vehicles while Toyota's sales hit 2.41 million despite a 4.2-per cent drop in Japanese sales.— AFP
|
|
|
Corporate Results
New Delhi, April 24 The company said during the quarter, it registered total income (net of excise) of Rs 5,069.9 crore, a growth of 9.4 per cent compared to January-March 2007. MSIL said its board of directors recommended a dividend of 100 per cent for 2007-08. HDFC Bank
HDFC Bank has posted a net profit of Rs 471.1 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, up by 37.1 per cent from the corresponding quarter last year. The bank had earned a net profit of Rs 343.57 crore a year ago. Total income was Rs 3,505.5 crore for the quarter against Rs 2,321 crore in the same period last year, an increase of 51.2 per cent, the bank said. The bank’s board has recommended an enhanced dividend of 85 per cent for the year ended March 31. Hero Honda net up 53%
Hero Honda Motors Ltd today announced a net profit of Rs 298.70 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, a 53 per cent growth over the corresponding period last year. Total turnover of the company during the quarter stood at Rs 2,843.79 crore, registering a growth of 5.95 per cent over the same period last fiscal. The company registered a net profit at Rs 967.88 crore and total turnover of Rs 10,517 crore in 2007-08. Nicholas Piramal
Nicholas Piramal has announced a net profit of Rs 132.82 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, against a net profit of Rs 54.95 crore in the corresponding period in 2007. The total income rose to Rs 767.9 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 645.21 crore in the year-ago period, NPIL said. Further, the board has declared a dividend of Rs 4.2 on equity shares of Rs 2 each for the financial year ending March 31. ACC profit 357 cr
ACC Ltd has said its net profit for the quarter ended March 2008 stood at Rs 357.54 crore, whereas it was at Rs 355.65 crore during the same quarter last year. The company said its total income for the quarter ended March 2008 rose to Rs 1,861.37 crore, as against Rs 1,728.46 crore in the same period a year ago. Hindustan Zinc
Hindustan Zinc has said its net profit has increased by 36.68 per cent to Rs 1,278 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, as compared to Rs 935 crore for the same quarter a year ago. Its total income has also hiked by 23.72 per cent to Rs 2,592 crore for the quarter as against Rs 2,095 crore for the same period a year ago. Moreover, the company has recommended final dividend at 25 per cent for the year 2007-2008.
— TNS, Agencies |
Infosys centre in Kolkata IOC to ramp up retail network Reliance Money tie-up Bombay Rayon buyout Shoppers Stop plan
|
|||||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
