New Delhi, September 17
The government today hiked the import duty on gold jewellery to 15 per cent making it more expensive than the primary metal to protect the domestic industry against cheaper imports.

The Finance Ministry said while import duty on gold has been hiked several times to reach the level of 10 per cent, the duty on gold and silver jewellery has not been raised in lines with these changes and has remained unchanged at 10 per cent.

Justifying the decision, the ministry said jewellery making is a labour-intensive industry. Millions of artisans are dependent on this sector for their livelihood.

In the absence of any duty differential between articles of jewellery and primary metal, which was 8 per cent in the case of gold jewellery and 4 per cent in the case of silver jewellery in January 2012, there is an apprehension that Indian jewellery makers would not be able to compete with cheaper imports, particularly when majority of the imported jewellery is machine-made as compared to handmade jewellery in India.

To protect the interests of small artisans, the import duty on jewellery is being increased from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. The move will check import of bullion while at the same time offer some protection to the domestic industry by making imported jewellery more expensive than gold.

The government and the RBI have been clamping down on gold imports to curb the current account deficit. Gold imports in value terms fell to $650 million in August, from $2.2 billion in July.

India is the largest importer of gold, which is mainly utilised to meet the demand of jewellery industry.

Gold prices firmed up today sending its five-day losing streak and rose by Rs 300 to Rs 30,400 per 10 grams on revival of buying at existing lower levels amid a firm global trend.

Further squeezing liquidity for gold to keep demand under check, the Reserve Bank of India today tightened norms for loans against pledge of gold jewellery. 

imported jewellery to cost more
The move will check import of bullion while at the same time offer some protection to the domestic industry by making imported jewellery more expensive than gold. While import duty on gold has been hiked several times to reach the level of 10 per cent, the duty on gold and silver jewellery has not been raised in lines with these changes and has remained unchanged at 10 per cent.

New guidelines

Now, gold jewellery to be accepted as collateral will have to be valued at the average of the closing price of 22 carat gold for the preceding 30 days

At present, there is no standard method for arriving at the value of gold accepted as collateral

The loan to value ratio for loans against jewellery will be 60%

A copy of the PAN Card of the borrower is must for all transactions above Rs 5 lakh

New Delhi, September 17
In a major step to slash costs, Air India today cleared a proposal to enter into hedging of aviation turbine fuel its airplanes lift overseas, officials said. A maximum of 5,00,000 barrels of jet fuel, lifted abroad, would be hedged each quarter at a price of up to $110 per barrel, as per a decision taken by the airline Board's Finance Committee which met here today.

A small committee has been set up to take the process forward, with the airline identifying organisations such as JP Morgan, Citibank and GDF Suez to carry out the fuel hedging, the officials, requesting anonymity, said.

Fuel hedging is a contractual tool large fuel-consuming companies like airlines use to reduce their exposure to volatile and potentially rising fuel costs. A fuel hedge contract allows such a company to establish a fixed or capped cost through a commodity swap or option.

Maintaining that the jet fuel budget of Air India was close to Rs 9,000 crore for 2013-14, they said it amounted to 45 per cent of the total cost and almost 60 per cent of the total revenue. The airline also pays about Rs 600 crore as sales and other taxes on ATF to state governments per year.

Asked why the airline was not interested in direct import of fuel which has been allowed by the government, the officials said it was not at all economical since the smallest package of jet fuel would be one tanker of 10,000 KL which would be a much more than required each month. — PTI

New Delhi, September 17
Samsung today launched its latest Note 3 smartphone priced at Rs 49,900 for Indian markets. While the company is looking at launching two smartphones this month for less than Rs 15,000 in a bid to intensify competition in the mid-segment mobile market, it brought in its most expensive and high-end phone — Note 3 — which has an advanced S Pen which will not only enable user to make note on phone but also give access to various applications.

The company also launched a compatible and first wearable water resistant computing device Galaxy Gear for Rs 22,990.

Customers would be able to synchronise some of the high-end Samsung smartphones with Galaxy Gear.

Both these products would be available for sale in India from September 25. Weighing 168 gm, the Android-based Note 3 would have a 5.7-inch screen and 13 megapixel camera.

The phone, which will be available in black, white and pink, has 3,200 mAh battery and give a backup of about 24 hours.

New Delhi, September 17
The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) today expressed resentment and disappointment over the government’s decision to effect a steep cut of 26-30 per cent in the duty drawback rates — a development that will negate the positive impact of rupee depreciation.

EEPC India, which represents the engineering exports, contributing the second largest share to the country’s total export basket, said unfortunately the drawback rates have been cut at a time when the export sector holds the most critical key to India’s vulnerable current account deficit.

The council said the government should immediately re-fix the duty drawback rates on the basis of 33 per cent value addition in case of engineering goods. Duty drawback is the refund of duties on imported inputs for export items.

New York, September 17
Nearly five years after India's biggest corporate scam broke out at erstwhile Satyam Computer, a US court has ordered fresh proceedings into charges that the Indian IT firm had fraudulently induced a company, Venture Global Engineering, into a partnership.

Satyam, whose founder and then chairman B Ramalinga Raju, had admitted in January 2009 a long-running fraud at the company, was later acquired by Tech Mahindra and its entire business was integrated with the new owner earlier this year.

The latest ruling by a US Appeals Court follows an earlier direction issued by a Districts Court of Michigan, which had dismissed claims made by Venture Global Engineering (VGE) against Satyam with regard to a joint venture.

In its order dated September 13, the Appeals Court has reversed the judgement of the district court and has ordered further proceedings into the matter.

In its appeal, VGE and the Larry J Winget Living Trust alleged that Satyam Computer Services "induced" them to form a joint venture by "misrepresenting its financial stability and general suitability as a business partner."

Satyam had argued that VGE should have brought their claims during an arbitration in 2005. The arbitrator had ruled that all of VGE's ownership interest in the 50:50 JV - Satyam Venture Engineering Services (SVES) - be transferred to Satyam. VGE had complied with the order at that time.

After Raju confessed to a fraud in a letter to investors in 2009, VGE in December 2010 filed an 'instant action' case, alleging that Satyam was engaged in a massive fraud even before the joint venture started.

"We hold that because plaintiffs' (VGE and the Trust) complaint adequately alleges that Satyam wrongfully concealed the factual predicate to plaintiffs' claims, the defence of claim preclusion does not apply.

"Thus, the district court erred in granting defendants’ (Satyam) motion to dismiss. We therefore reverse the judgement of the district court and remand for further proceedings," the US States Court of Appeals for Sixth Circuit ruled. — PTI

New Delhi, September 17
Reflecting the continuing slowdown in the telecom sector, the GSM subscriber base in the country grew marginally in August to 67.44 crore with telecom operators adding just 17.8 lakh new subscribers.

As per the data released by industry body COAI today, the GSM subscriber base stood at 67.26 crore at the end of July this year.

Among the telecom operators, Aircel led the growth with addition of 8.76 lakh new subscribers taking its total subscriber base to 6.26 crore by August-end.

Bharti Airtel added 8.33 lakh users to take its base to 19.22 crore at the end of the month. The company continues to be the market leader with a market share of 28.50%.

Idea added 7.52 lakh new subscribers to its network to take its base to 12.60 crore by August-end and enjoys a market share of 18.69%.

Vodafone, however, lost over 85,000 users from its network which led its base shrinking to 15.43 crore. The company now has a market share of 22.88% followed by Idea in third place.

Uninor also lost over 5 lakh users, as a result of which, its base stood at 3.22 crore by August-end while BSNL saw a flat month with no additions or loss in the subscriber base.

However, MTNL lost 2.48 lakh subscribers and its user base has been reduced to 38.42 lakh at the end of reported period.

Videocon added 1.58 lakh new users to its network to take its base to 29.29 lakh at the end of August. It grew the maximum 5.7 per cent over the previous month in terms of adding the subscribers.