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Norms on FIs’
investment in debt securities issued Lord Swraj Paul
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Hotel owners
threaten to close liquor bars In a major global acquisition and the first of its kind of the Reliance group, US-based FLAG Telecom has announced its amalgamation with Reliance Gateway for a deal valued at $211 million (Rs 950 crore). Ashok Leyland to
roll out Euro-III trucks Ashok Leyland said today it was exploring the possibility of establishing an assembly line in Pakistan following the recent thaw in the relations between the two countries.
About 500 petrol stations of private companies will start operating from April this year, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said here today. Mr Ram Naik, Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas (L), talks to Mr Ralph Klein, Premier of Alberta, Canada, during the fifth Oil and Gas Conference in New Delhi on Tuesday. — PTI photo
Digital GlobalSoft has reported a net profit of Rs 355.50 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2003, as against Rs 270.10 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2002.
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Norms on FIs’ investment in debt securities issued
Mumbai, January 13 While these guidelines will come into force on April 1, 2004, the FIs had been given a transition period to comply with the norms, considering the time required by the issuers of debt securities to get their existing unlisted debt issues listed on stock exchanges, an RBI notification said. The FIs must invest only in rated debt securities, which carry a minimum investment grade rating from a rating agencies. The FIs should not invest in debt securities of original maturity of less than one-year other than commercial paper and certificates of deposits, which were covered under the RBI guidelines. These norms will apply to debt instruments issued by companies, banks, FIs and state and central government-sponsored institutions, special purpose vehicles, debt instruments/bond issued by central or state public sector undertakings, with or without government guarantee; units of debt-oriented schemes of mutual funds; capital gains bonds and the bonds eligible for the priority sector status. Referring to the transition period, the RBI said investment in units of mutual fund schemes where the entire corpus is invested in non-government debt securities will be outside the purview of the above guidelines till December 31, 2004. The RBI said from January 1, 2005, investment in MF schemes, which had an exposure to unlisted debt securities of less than 10 per cent of the corpus, will be treated at par with listed securities for the purpose of the prudential limits. The FIs may invest until March 31, 2004, in the existing unlisted securities, which were issued on or before November 30, 2003. In case, the issuers have applied for listing of unlisted securities, which had a minimum investment grade, the FIs may continue to invest in such papers even after March 31, 2004, but only until December 31, 2004. Effective January, 2005, only those FIs will be eligible to make fresh investments (up to the prescribed prudential limits) in the unlisted securities covered in these guidelines whose investments were in compliance with the norms. On regulatory requirements, the FIs should undertake usual due diligence in respect of investments in debt securities, including those which do not attract these norms. Referring to the prudential norms, it said the FI board should put in place a monitoring system to ensure that the prudential limits were complied with, including the system for addressing the breaches, if any, due to rating migration. To help in the creation of a central database on private placement of debt, the investing FIs should file a copy of all offer documents with the Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd. Any default relating to payment for private debt should also be reported to CIBIL, it added.
— PTI
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Lord Swraj Paul to spend on film Kolkata, January 13 He said his Caparo group, which was mainly producing steel pipe in Britain, now set up a fashion technology unit in Ahmedabad and decided to make a Hollywood film with Lagaan-fame Aamir Khan as its hero. The Lord Paul and Lady Paul were given a reception at Kolkata press this afternoon by mediapersons. He has been in the city for the past six days heading a 15-member high power British advisory team of the Indo-Britain round table in holding talks with the Indian bureaucrats and professionals in exchanging for improving the bilateral trade and commerce, economic and cultural relations. Lord Paul, who is a member of the House of Lords, was confident that there would be larger flow of funds from the UK and other European countries to India, if the government and the country’s businessmen could attract the foreign investors in the right direction. He assured he would take utmost attempt to bring in UK investment in India to a large extent. He said the Tony Blair Government was very much sympathetic towards India and Blair was keen that India should develop globally at par with other developed countries of the world.
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Hotel owners threaten to close liquor bars Karnal, January 13 Under the current excise policy the bars in the state are restricted to purchase selected brands of liquor on retail price with heavy licence fee and additional sales tax. The licence fee for sale of liquor in hotels, restaurants and clubs in Haryana is the maximum. According to the details, the licence fee applicable to the restaurants, hotels and clubs in Punjab was Rs 2 lakh, Haryana Rs 5 lakh, Himachal Pradesh Rs 1.2 lakh and Chandigarh Rs 1.5 lakh. In addition to the licence fee, the Haryana Government has also levied 20 per cent sales tax on sale of liquor and beer. Interestingly, none of the neighbouring states is charging sales tax on sale of liquor in hotels, restaurants and clubs. Moreover, the state government has adopted double standards on supply of liquor and beer to the private bars and the bars owned by the tourism development corporation. There are 30 bars owned by the corporation and 40 bars in hotels, restaurants and clubs running in the state. As far as the bars in various tourism complexes in the state are concerned, the tourism corporation has got separate L-1 permit (whole sale permit) that enabled its tourist complexes to purchase liquor and beer comparatively at very less price than the private bars who purchase liquor and beer at more than double the price from L-2 permit holders (vendors). Demanding that the double taxation policy should be withdrawn from the next financial year, the President of HRANI, Colonel Manbeer Choudhary (retd), while talking to TNS said, “The double taxation policy adopted by the government in the form of excise duty and sales tax is not in the interest of promotion of hotels and restaurants”. Adding to the woes of hotel and restaurant industry, the state government had also restricted the restaurants and hotels to purchase only those brands of liquor as recommended by the Excise Department. No hotel and restaurant had been permitted to purchase liquor less than the brand quality. And that too with limited brands like Royal Challenge, Peter Scot, Signature, Antiquity, Blenders Pride, Smirnoff Vodka, 100 Pipers and Teachers scotch. Sale of Rum had been restricted in the bars. He further said the department had granted L-4/L-5 permits to only to those hotels and restaurants having three-star rating. The total supply of liquor to these bars was being supplied through local vendor having L-2 permit.
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FLAG now Reliance arm New Delhi, January 13 Reliance Gateway is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Reliance Infocomm. The decision was taken at a special shareholders meeting held in New York where it was “unanimously decided” to amalgamate with Reliance Infocomm. This is Reliance group’s first international acquisition. FLAG Telecom has a customer base of more than 180 leading operators, including all of the top 10 international carriers. FLAG owns and manages an extensive optical fibre network spanning four continents and
connecting key business markets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA. It also owns and operates a low latency global IP network, which connects most of the world’s principal international Internet exchanges. FLAG will complement the existing next generation digital network in India of Reliance and offer end-to-end solutions.
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Ashok Leyland to roll out Euro-III trucks New Delhi, January 13 ''We are interested in the Pakistani market which we believe has good potential for our offerings. For this purpose, we have formed a team within the company which will take care of all matters related with Pakistan,’’ Ashok Leyland Executive Director (Product Development and Advanced Engineering) M Natraj told newspersons here. Mr Natraj said a team of dealers from Pakistan had visited officials of Ashok Leyland two weeks back. “The potential and the demand for our products is there. However, we are studying finer aspects on the route we will take for making the entry and also on the product portfolio we will offer,” he added. He said the company will unveil its state-of-the-art Euro III compliant trucks during the Auto Expo
beginning on Thursday. The two trucks, 4026J tractor and 3126 J tipper, have been designed to meet the needs of the future, when trucks would travel long distances following the completion of golden
quadrilateral, said Mr N Natraj, managing director of the company. Stating that special marketing focus would be in Punjab and Haryana, Mr Natraj said the company plans to sell 500 to 1000 units in the first year and is optimistic of selling 20,000 units in the first five years. The trucks would roll out in 2005.
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Private firms to sell fuel from April New Delhi, January 13 “A review of the
progress made by these (private) companies reveals that around 500 outlets will be established by April, 2004”, Mr Naik said, while speaking at the inaugural session of the 5th Oil and Gas Conference here. Following the deregulation of the oil sector, the government has granted licence to several companies for throwing open marketing of petroleum products to private companies also. So far Reliance Industries has been granted licence to set up 5,849 petrol stations. Licences have also been granted to Essar Oil (1,700 stations), Royal Dutch/Shell (2000 stations), ONGC (1,100) and Numaligarh Refinery (510 stations).
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LG cuts prices of mobile sets Airtel service ONGC chief UTI Bank branch Hikal net up SEBI bars 93 Trading in gold Tractor loan |
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Kolkata, January 13
