New Delhi, March 13
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) plans to invest about $ 27 billion in next four years across its core oil and gas and petrochemical businesses as also new ventures like telecom.

According to a Deutsche Bank AG report issued after its analysts met one of the company's two joint chief financial officers (CFOs), "RIL is at the cusp of its next capex cycle as it invests $27 billion over 2013-14 to 2016-17 fiscal."

About 85 per cent of the capex will be in its core business, the report said.

RIL will spend $11 billion in oil and gas exploration, including US shale gas venture, and $4 billion in refining business.

Another $8 billion is planned in petrochemical projects while $3 billion would go into its yet to be launched telecom venture. The rest $1 billion would go into retail business, it said.

RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani had last year announced plans to invest Rs 100,000 crore across energy, retail and telecom businesses in the next five years to double operating profit.

It is in the process of getting regulatory nod for putting to production newer and satellite gas fields to arrest the decline in output from the main fields on the KG-D6 block. RIL is investing $8 billion, the most since it completed a second oil refinery in 2008, in expansion of its petrochemical business to meet rising demand of plastics and polyester.

It is also setting up a $4 billion petroleum coke gasification project that will produce synthetic natural gas, which will replace expensive LNG as fuel.

"After our detailed meetings with the joint CFO of RIL, we came out more convinced on our bullish view on RIL," the report said.

"Our positive view on RIL is premised on expectation of approval for gas price increase in FY14, approvals for KGD6 R-Series and NEC-25 development plans in FY14 improving visibility on monetisation of these discoveries and start of a new capex cycle," it said.

The most significant catalyst improving visibility on monetisation of existing discoveries will be approval for a hike in the domestic natural gas price. The company currently gets $4.2 per million British thermal unit price of gas produced from KG-D6 block.

"The company has submitted a development plan for KG-D6 R-Series and will soon submit the same for (the separate) NEC-25 (block)," it said. "Coupled with the approved KG-D6 Satellite fields, RIL is targeting development of over 4 trillion cubic feet of recoverable resources."

RIL management believes there is further scope for faster approvals so as to increase domestic production. — PTI

Seattle, March 13
Boeing Co won approval from the US transport regulators yesterday to start testing a redesigned battery for the 787 Dreamliner, putting it one step closer to getting the troubled airplane back into regular service.

Sources said the planemaker was close to signing a $15-billion deal to sell about 170 single-aisle 737 planes to budget Irish carrier Ryanair.

Boeing's shares closed up 1.5 per cent, hitting an almost five-year high, and extended gains in after-hours trade, while shares in Japan's GS Yuasa Corp, the battery maker for Dreamliner, rose 0.9 per cent in Tokyo on Wednesday, outpacing a 0.5 per cent drop in the benchmark Nikkei.

Late on Tuesday, the US Federal Aviation Administration said it had approved Boeing's battery certification plan and would permit two aircraft limited flights to test the new design.

Regulators grounded the 50 fuel-efficient Dreamliners in use by airlines on January 16 after a battery fire on a Japan Airlines Co Ltd 787 at Boston airport and a second battery incident on an All Nippon Airways Co Ltd flight in Japan. Boeing halted deliveries of the lightweight aircraft, although its factories continue to make it. The firm is losing an estimated $50 million a week while the planes are grounded.

"We won't allow the plane to return to service unless we're satisfied that the new design ensures the safety of the aircraft and its passengers," US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

Boeing's new battery — which it presented to the FAA in late February — is designed to minimise the chances of a short circuit, better insulates the cells within the battery, and adds a new containment and venting system to prevent damage even if the battery catches fire. — Reuters

New Delhi, March 13
The Income Tax Department has asked taxpayers, who pay taxes on the basis of self-assessment, to clear their dues by March 31.

Warning the defaulters of penal consequences, the Finance Ministry in a statement said 73,388 people have defaulted on payments of self-assessment tax aggregating Rs 3,859 crore.

“Filing a return without paying the admitted amount of tax that is payable will render such taxpayer an ‘assessee in default’ under the provisions of the I-T Act. Such taxpayers who default in payment of self-assessment tax may invite penal consequences,” the statement said.

“Income-Tax Department urges all taxpayers who have filed their returns in the current financial year and have defaulted on payment of self-assessment tax to immediately come forward and pay the due taxes before March 31, 2013,” it said.

It further said in future the tax arrears, in case of self-assessment, should be cleared along with the filing of return.

To check tax evasion, the government has already sent 35,000 notices to taxpayers who are not filing returns and a similar number of notices are in the process of being issued. 

New Delhi/Mumbai, March 13
As private airlines intensified low-fare war, Air India today launched a 60-day advance purchase fare scheme to woo vacation travellers on its domestic network offering prices close to air-conditioned train fares.

The advance purchase fare (Apex) tickets are available for sale on various routes operated by Air India from today for travel commencing 60 days and beyond.

Customers availing the offer can undertake travel from the middle of May, the airline said.

This latest Air India (AI) offer comes on the heels of the cash-strapped national carrier announcing 30-day and 7-day special fares recently.

The Apex scheme targets vacation travellers during the peak holiday season luring them from train to air travel and is also an attempt to strengthen AI foothold in the leisure travel market, an Air India spokesperson said.

The national carrier has priced the tickets matching closely with AC train fares.

An all-inclusive 60-day advance purchase fare on Delhi-Mumbai sector would cost Rs 3,981 while on Delhi-Lucknow route it would cost as low as Rs 2,562.

Similarly, an all inclusive Mumbai-Kolkata fare would be Rs 4,556, Mumbai-Bangalore Rs 2,930, Delhi-Chennai for Rs 4,852, Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Hyderabad would cost Rs 4,012. — PTI

New Delhi, March 13
Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) will increase prices of its vehicles across models by up to 2 per cent from April to offset cost of OBD (on-board diagnostics) compliance and freight increase.

"We are increasing car prices from April 1 by an amount of up to 2 per cent. The details are still being worked out," a company official said.

The increase in prices will be primarily on account of OBD compliance effective from April 1, 2013, and freight increase, the official added.

At present, the company sells hatchbacks Brio and Jazz, sedans City, Civic, Accord and sports utility vehicle CR-V with price ranging from Rs 4.1 lakh to Rs 27.38 lakh. HCIL had reported 26.49 per cent decrease in its domestic sales for February 2013 at 6,510 units as against 8,856 units in the same month last year. — PTI

New Delhi, March 13
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) would be the biggest beneficiary from the 4G LTE rollout where it could soon emerge as a leader with the company having rolled out a country-wide network well ahead of getting a nod from the government to allow voice over IP.

Telecom has always been a passionate subject for Mukesh and with the re-entry into the sector, the RIL boss would be looking at providing low-cost calling facilities to the people again, something which he had done when he had launched Reliance Communications and offered low-cost phones on CDMA network across the country.

What might augur well for RIL is the prospect of AT&T’s re-entry into India. The American company is planning to buy 25 per cent stake in Reliance Jio Infocomm, the 4G venture of Mukesh Ambani, for $3.5 billion.

Having got a clearance from the government only recently, Reliance Jio Infocomm is expected to roll out its services by the year-end, with Delhi and Mumbai seeing pilot launches. Mukesh’s venture is still in the process of finalising a business plan for its 4G/ TD-LTE launch and a joint venture with AT&T would be able to give it a jumpstart due to its partner’s expertise in the sector.

Both AT&T and Reliance can source 4G phones and network cost effectively to make India one of the top five LTE markets in the world.

New Delhi, March 13
The government has ruled out banning export of onions, saying that the spurt in domestic prices was “temporary” caused by unseasonable rains and mandi closures. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma told the Rajya Sabha that India had adequate stocks of onion. “We have no shortage and position is as such comfortable,” he said.

Only surplus production after taking into account all of domestic consumption, is allowed to be exported, he said, adding domestic production of onion at 17 million tonne was more than the demand of about 15 million tonne. "The export policy of agricultural produce depends on various factors, including availability of surplus, over and above the requirement of buffer stock, including strategic reserves. Out of total onion production in the country, 84 per cent is consumed domestically and 6 per cent is used for creating buffer stock. Only 7 per cent is exported, he said.

“We cannot abruptly stop exports,” he said, citing sovereign supply commitments that may have been made. Besides, stopping exports would mean yielding the space in international commodity market to rivals.

New Delhi, March 13
Bharti Airtel today said it has acquired additional 13.36 per cent stake in its Nigerian entity through its wholly owned subsidiary Bharti Airtel Nigeria.

In a statement issued here, Bharti said this stake has been acquired from “certain existing shareholders”. It has also sent a communication to the stock exchanges in this regard.

The financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Bharti said with the latest stake purchase, Bharti Airtel Nigeria now owns around 79 per cent stake in Airtel Networks, Nigeria. This would consolidate Airtel's position over its Nigerian assets.

Airtel's ownership of the Nigerian telecom company has been entangled in legal battles with Econet Wireless, a 5 per cent stakeholder in the entity, filing court cases and seeking damages after opposing sale of the Nigerian business.

Bharti Airtel acquired Kuwaiti telecom company Zain's African assets in 2010 for $10.7 billion (Rs 57,887 crore). Their African assets are spread across 19 countries of the continent.

The total number of subscribers in Nigeria is around 36 million and Airtel has around 6 million users with 20 per cent market share.