New Delhi, July 18
Though Coal Ministry is planning to take action against both private and public sector companies for not developing the coal blocks allocated to them over the past few years, it is learnt that some of these coal mines may have been allocated by ignoring the norms and criteria laid down for allocation of blocks by the ministry itself.

Following the CAG report that suggested a presumptive Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss to the national exchequer after the allocation of coal blocks to companies and their subsequent non-development, the Coal Ministry has decided to either de-allocate the coal mines or deduct the bank guarantees furnished by them.

Officials point out that the ministry may have gone about allocating some of these coal blocks while overlooking the norms and the criteria announced for acquiring these blocks. The eligibility criteria may have been overlooked in case of certain companies due to the alleged influence wielded by their owners.

Sources say one such coal block is Ramchandi promotional block, a coal-to-liquid (CTL) block allotted to a joint venture of Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) in Odisha. The Coal Ministry last month issued a show-cause notice to JSPL for delay in developing the Ramchandi promotional block.

While the guidelines for the allotment of Ramchandi coal block clearly provided that the applicant company should have a minimum net worth of Rs 4,000 crore, the JSPL was allegedly allotted the coal block despite not meeting this critical criteria.

The Coal Ministry guidelines had said, “Since the expected investment for a 3.5 million tonne oil and oil products project is expected to be around $6-8 billion, the applicant company should have a minimum net worth of Rs 4,000 crore”.

It further said the applicant company should have a net worth of Rs 4,000 crore, or in the case of a new SPV/JV, the net worth of their principals should be equal to the above mentioned sum.

As per audited annual accounts of JSPL for the F.Y. 2007-08, its net worth was approximately Rs 3,700 crore. However, it went ahead and forged a joint venture with Jindal Steel Limited (JSL), Nalwa Steel & Power Limited (NSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Ltd.

It was also claimed in the application that a new joint venture/consortium company is being created.

Sources point out that at the date of application there was no joint venture consortium in existence as a legal entity and therefore the application for allotment on the basis of so-called consortium should have been rejected at the threshold itself.

What further puts the allocation under shadow is the joint venture terms and conditions. As per the JV, while JSPL was to hold 70 per cent share in the new entity, the other three would hold 10 per cent each.

As per the above calculations, it has emerged that the net worth of the new joint venture created for acquiring the Ramchandi promotional block was not even Rs 2,850 crore, a far cry from the Rs 4,000 crore criteria.

The Ramchandi block was allocated to JSPL in February, 2009, and the company had announced to invest Rs 60,000 crore on the CTL project to be set up at Durgapur in Angul district.

New Delhi, July 18
Intensifying the price war in 3G segment, Reliance Communications (RCom) today came out with new tariffs where it announced the 3G data prices a tad lower than their 2G prices.

While 1GB of data download via 3G will cost Rs 123, the same data download through 2G will cost Rs 125, the company said.

Looking to pull in more subscribers, RCom said the new offer would be applicable to both post-paid and pre-paid users.

Only around 5 per cent of the country’s 850 million mobile phone users have subscribed to 3G services, which are estimated to account for 3 per cent of mobile revenue of telecom operators.

RCom said it was looking to bag high-value customers from other telcos through the new plan. The operator has 3G operations across 13 circles.

The price of downloading 2G of data would cost Rs 246, while 4GB will cost Rs 492.

Mumbai, July 18
After announcing plans to suck Rs 12,000 crore through sale of bonds, the RBI today chose to accept a little more than one-fifth of the amount, rejecting offers for short-term parking of funds.

While the total bids were to the tune of Rs 24,279 crore, a significant part of it was for a period of up to nine years, the bank chose to accept bids worth only Rs 2,532 crore which will be kept by it up to a maximum of 17 years.

With rupee touching low levels, RBI on Monday had come out with slew of measures, including sucking out liquidity worth Rs 12,000 crore through the OMO, to stem the slide. The rupee today extended losses for the second day, dropping 33 paise to 59.67 against dollar.

As per the summary results of the auction, the RBI accepted 11 bids worth Rs 777 crore for the 2026 bonds and 10 bids worth Rs 1,755 crore for 2030 bonds.

The results released by the RBI revealed that no bid for 8.07 per cent, 2017 bonds and 8.15 per cent, 2022 bonds was accepted.

It further said the cut-off price was Rs 100.75 (cut off yield 8.2343 per cent) for 2026 bonds and Rs 103.8 (cut off yield 8.5444) for the 2030 bonds.

The measures unveiled by RBI on Monday night came after high-level meetings between the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister followed by discussions with RBI Governor D Subbarao last week.

Reacting to the RBI auction results, Jayesh Mehta, country treasurer, Bank of America Merill Lynch, said investors do not have an appetite because already Rs 25,000 crore of debt is already there in the market looking for investors every week. — PTI

New York, July 18
India-born former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta, convicted of insider trading, has been ordered to pay a hefty $13.9 million civil penalty and permanently barred from acting as an officer or director of a public company for spilling boardroom secrets.

The order issued by Judge Jed S Rakoff of the US District Court for the southern district of New York, imposed the penalty on Gupta yesterday in connection with the biggest insider trading case in the US history.

Gupta (64) is appealing his June, 2012, conviction in a parallel case, in which he was handed down a two-year prison term and fined $5 million. His attorney was not immediately available for comment regarding the civil penalty imposed yesterday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday obtained the $13.9 million penalty against Gupta for illegally tipping corporate secrets to his friend and former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam.

Gupta also is permanently barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company, the US regulator said.

The SEC previously obtained a record $92.8 million penalty against Rajaratnam for prior insider trading charges.

"The sanctions imposed today send a clear message to board members who are entrusted with protecting the confidences of the companies they serve," said George S Canellos, Co-Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.

In its complaint filed in late 2011, the SEC alleged that Gupta disclosed confidential information to Rajaratnam about Berkshire Hathaway Inc's $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs as well as non-public details about Goldman Sachs' financial results for the second and fourth quarters of 2008. — PTI

Mumbai, July 18
The country's largest software exporter, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), today reported consolidated net profit of Rs 3,831 crore for the June quarter, up 15.5 per cent from Rs 3,318 crore in the same period last year.

The company's total revenue, under Indian IFRS accounting standards, rose 21% to Rs 17,987 crore from Rs 14,869 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

The company, in a regulatory filing, said operating margin stood at 26.9 per cent while volume grew 6.10 per cent during the reporting quarter. — PTI

New Delhi, July 18
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has regained its position as the world's largest bourse in terms of volumes in equity trades, in June, latest data by World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) shows.

After maintaining its lead in the first three months of 2013, for equity trading volumes, NSE had slipped to the second slot in April and May.

Despite witnessing a fall of 9.7 per cent in its equity trades last month, NSE registered a total of 11.2 crore trades on its platform, making it the world's top exchange on this parameter among the 50 bourses listed with WFE.

Meanwhile, NSE was also ranked first in number of equity trades for the first half of 2013 with a total of 71.18 crore trades.

In June, NSE was followed by NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX at the second and the third positions. NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq recorded 10.65 crore and 9.88 crore trades, respectively, in their equity segments.

China's Shenzhen SE, which emerged as the top bourse in May, has slipped to the fourth place. The exchange recorded a total of 8.44 crore trades in June.

Another major Indian bourses, BSE stood at the eighth place with 2.44 crore trades on its platform.

While the total number of listed companies is much larger in case of the BSE, it lags behind NSE significantly in terms of volume and value of trades. Others among the top-10 for June included Korea Exchange (5th), Shanghai SE (6th), Japan Exchange Group, Tokyo (7th), Canada's TMX Group (9th) and BM & FBOVESPA (10th). — PTI

Chandigarh, July 18
Telecom giant Vodafone has topped the list of service taxpayers in the region (comprising Chandigarh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh), according to the prepared by the Central Excise and Service Tax Department.

The data showed that Vodafone South Limited paid Rs 60.48 crore to the department for the year 2012-13. The data further showed that service tax collection in the region has shown a growth of 44 per cent as compared to 2011-12. In the year 2012-13, the department collected Rs 1,610 crore as service tax as compare to Rs 1,115 crore in 2011-12.

An official of the department said in the past few years Vodafone always remained at the top position.

Among the sectors, it was telecom which has emerged as the top contributor to service tax in the region.

Mumbai, July 18
Private sector lender Axis Bank today reported 22 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 1,408.93 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2013.

The company had a net profit of Rs 1,154.15 crore in the April-June quarter of the previous fiscal, Axis Bank said in a filing to the BSE.

Total income of the lender rose to Rs 9,059.12 crore in the quarter under review, from Rs 7,818 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

The bank’s gross NPAs rose to 1.10 per cent of advances as against 1.06 per cent in the same quarter previous fiscal. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Rupee declines 33 paise vs $
Mumbai: The rupee extended losses for the second day on Thursday, dropping 33 paise to 59.67 against dollar, after Fed's comments strengthened the US currency and RBI drained only a fifth of its target in an auction to curb liquidity. — PTI

Bajaj-KTM plans more bikes
Kolkata: Bajaj-KTM said on Thursday it has drawn up plans to launch more racing bikes for Indian roads in the coming years. "Bajaj-KTM will launch two variants of the RC brand of 'faired' racing bikes in the calendar year 2014 under the sub-500cc category," said Amit Nandi, vice-president of Bajaj Probiking. — PTI

Gold, silver fall on less offtake
New Delhi: Both the precious metals, gold and silver, fell in the national capital on Thursday on reduced offtake by stockists and jewellers amid a weak global trend. While gold fell by Rs 75 to Rs 27,025 per 10 grams, silver lost Rs 615 at Rs 40,435 per kg on reduced offtake by industrial units and coin makers. — PTI

Mandi Payment Scheme
Chandigarh: The Haryana Government has decided to launch a scheme known as ‘Mandi Payment Scheme’ for farmers in the state. Under the scheme, a transaction of Rs 25,000 crore will be made to issue debit cards to the farmers. — TNS