New Delhi, August 13
In a bid to arrest the burgeoning current account deficit (CAD) and the fall in the rupee, customs duty on gold, silver and platinum has been hiked to 10 per cent in the third revision this year, just before the start of the festival season.

The revenue mobilisation through this measure will be to the tune of an additional Rs 4,830 crore to the exchequer. The notification comes a day after Finance Minister P Chidambaram had underlined the need for compression in the import of gold and silver.

While the duty on gold and platinum was raised from 8 per cent to 10 per cent, the levy on silver was hiked by 4 per cent.

The government is also slated to announce hike in import duties on non-essential goods with a view to curbing imports as the next step.

It is estimated that the price of gold will go up by Rs 600 per 10 grams. This is the third time that the government has raised the duty on gold this year with a view to containing its imports, mainly responsible for spurt in CAD which touched at a record high of 4.8 per cent in 2012-13.

India is a major importer and consumer of gold and silver. The quantity of gold imported during 2012-13 was 845 tonnes valued at Rs 2.45 lakh crore. The quantity of silver imported during 2012-13 was 1,963 tonnes valued at Rs 10,691 crore.

Mumbai, August 13
RBI governor D Subbarao, who demits office next month, today suggested additional liquidity may have to be infused into the banking system.

“There is perhaps some need to let banks reduce the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR)," Subbarao said at a conference organised by Ficci and the Indian Banks' Association.

The RBI chief's statement comes at a time when economic growth has slowed sharply even as the rupee continued to lose ground against the US dollar.

Subbarao went on to say that both banks and non-banking financial institutions be brought under the regulator to ensure the stability of the economy.

"It is important that for financial stability, RBI should regulate both banks and non-banks," Subbarao said. He went on to say that the 2008 financial crisis may have been averted if the non-banking institutions were strictly regulated. "Across the world, and in India, there is a strong linkage between banks and non-banks, which necessitates RBI regulation over such institutions," he said.

The governor added that the regulation of various institutions will be part of a discussion paper on critical banking structure reforms to be released by RBI shortly.

The paper will include key reform proposals,, including creation of smaller banks and differential licensing norms for banks, or permission to undertake specific banking tasks, Subbarao added.

He noted that Indian banks would need to raise as much as Rs 4.95 trillion to meet Basel III norms by 2018. India's banking structure, he added, was currently skewed, with significant difference in size even among the top lenders. The creation of four-five larger banks of comfortable size will help to eliminate the monopoly of a single bank in the system, he added. 

New Delhi, August 13
The government has allowed 13 institutions, including NTPC, NHB and HUDCO, to raise Rs 48,000 crore through issue of tax-free bonds to boost long-term infrastructure finance.

The bonds would be in a tenure of 10, 15 or 20 years.

Retail investors, qualified institutional buyers, corporates and high networth individuals can subscribe to the bonds, the CBDT said in a circular.

The companies which have been allowed to issue bonds include IIFCL (Rs 10,000 crore), IRFC (Rs 10,000 crore), National Housing Bank (Rs 3,000 crore), NTPC (Rs 1,750 crore) and NHPC (Rs 1,000 crore).

Besides, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Rural Electrification Corp (REC), Power Finance Corp (PFC) and Housing and Urban Development Corp (HUDCO) have been allowed to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore each in the current fiscal. — PTI

New Delhi, August 13
The 50-day-long strike at Bajaj Auto's Chakan plant has been called off today and the work will resume from tomorrow.

While the company claimed that the workers called off the stir "unconditionally", Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sanghatana (VKKS), the union of workers at the plant, said it decided to end 'stoppage of work' in view of the upcoming festive season and will continue to push for its demands.

"I am very pleased that the VKKS...has unconditionally called off their strike at Chakan," Bajaj Auto managing director Rajiv Bajaj said.

VKKS president Dilip Pawar said: "With Diwali and Ganpati festivals coming up, we decided that it will be in the interest of all to end the stoppage of work. We will resume work from tomorrow."

The workers at the Chakan plant had gone on strike from June 25. The management had claimed that they "stopped coming" to work thereby affecting production following refusal to allot them shares at discounted price. On the other hand, the workers have asked for higher wages and reinstatement of sacked colleagues.

"On behalf of the management I assure all the 22 workmen who are suspended pending enquiry that their cases will be considered objectively and sympathetically in the collective interest of all stakeholders," Bajaj added.

The Chakan plant has an installed capacity of over 3,000 units a day. It employs over 1,500 workers. — PTI

New Delhi, August 13
Looking to further improve its foothold in the country’s smartphone market, Samsung today launched user interface in nine Indian languages that would help it sell mobile handsets better.

The nine Indian languages that would be supported on Galaxy Grand, Galaxy S4 and Tab 3 include Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati.

The initiative will enable consumers to access applications from the Samsung Application Store in their language in various categories ranging from entertainment, games, utility, lifestyle, devotional and business. Users can get experience in their own language by using Chaton, Facebook, Gmail and Newshunt on select Samsung devices.

Various websites would be available to the smartphone users in vernacular languages, helping the company to further strengthen its sales.

The company plans to enhance the availability of regional language content to its more affordable smartphone range starting with Galaxy Star within this month. The number of languages being offered too will be increased.

New Delhi, August 13
Listed public sector companies have sold shares worth over Rs 2,500 crore to comply with minimum public shareholding norms for which the deadline ended last week, a report said today.

Capital market regulator SEBI norms required all state-run companies to have at least 10 per cent public shareholding by August 8.

Till June 30, as many as 16 public sector companies were required to meet SEBI’s minimum public shareholding norms.

Among these NMDC, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers, State Bank of Mysore had complied with the guidelines.

According to a report by Prime Database, public sector firms namely Hindustan Copper, ITDC, MMTC, STC, National Fertilizers and Neyveli Lignite have recently complied with the deadline.

Besides, the excess government holding in six other listed PSUs - HMT, Fertilizers & Chemicals Travancore, ITI, Andrew Yule, Hindustan Photo Films and Scooters India - would be transferred out to a Special National Investment Fund.

"This puts to rest the continuing concerns raised by several analysts that PSUs shall not comply citing one reason or the other and that some relaxation shall be granted to them," the report noted.

Since April 2011, the government has garnered a total of Rs 2,501 crore by diluting its stake in PSUs in order to meet SEBI’s guidelines.

Out of the total, Rs 2,086 crore has been raked in through the Offer for Sale (OFS) mechanism and another Rs 424 crore through the Institutional Placement Programme (IPP) route.

Both these instruments were designed specifically by Sebi for promoters to divest their holdings to meet the regulator's norms. — PTI

BRIEFLY

British Airways’ offer
Mumbai: To celebrate Independence Day, British Airways has announced a 4-day special offer of 15% discount on its business class tickets to London and N America. — PTI