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Petro price hike unavoidable: FM
India loses Kazakh oil firm to China
Flat FDI inflow worries Montek, Mulford
Mittal Steel inks mining deal with Liberia
Punjab plywood industry to raise prices |
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GAIL to clean Beijing air
Airtel mulls $ 1 b expansion
OBC mulls jv in Malaysia with BoB, BoM
REL wants GAIL to pipe gas to Dadri plant
Assocham demands uniform VAT on tea
Modern Automobiles wins Maruti awards
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Petro price hike unavoidable: FM
Karaikudi (TN), August 22 When the UPA government came to power more than a year ago, the crude oil prices, which was around $ 28 per barrel, had now shot up to $ 67 a barrel. Though the UPA government was exploring various other options, “there is no alternative but to hike the prices of petroleum products and people have to share a part of the burden,” he said speaking to mediapersons here yesterday. He said the World Bank had recently agreed to sanction Rs 13,500 crore for developmental projects. The amount would be spent on irrigation, drinking water, roads and other sanitation schemes in the country, he said adding that the government had asked for more funds for the purpose. To a question on disinvestment, he said talks were in progress with the Left parties on finding a solution to the disinvestment of public undertakings. Mr Chidambaram alleged that the Tamil Nadu Government was merely announcing various welfare schemes without implementing any development projects or taking steps to develop the basic infrastructure in the state. Though welfare schemes are needed, development projects were essential to meet the future requirement. He said the state governments’ share from the tax collections had increased besides liberal allocation of funds from the 12th Finance Commission. The Central grant for the state governments had also increased as per the recommendation of the Planning Commission report, he said. Asked whether the Tamil Nadu economy had improved, he said the “Indian economy had developed and I won’t be surprised if the state economy also developed accordingly”. Meanwhile, talking at the sidelines of Amcham conference in New Delhi today, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said it would be “fiscally irresponsible” not to align domestic oil prices with global oil prices that is hovering around $ 65 a barrel. Echoing Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s views on increasing fuel prices, Dr Ahluwalia said the government had to do it as “all other countries were doing it.” “If we do not adjust fuel prices, then in effect we are running a hidden subsidy. The subsidy is having an extremely damaging effect on the oil companies, which could have an adverse impact in the long run,” he said. “Exceptions can be made here and there with targeted groups, but otherwise any mis-alignment is in fact a hidden subsidy...investors around the world and people looking at financial stability will view this as a hidden subsidy,” Dr Ahluwalia said.
— PTI
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India loses Kazakh oil firm to China
New Delhi, August 22 China National Petroleum Corp, which trailed Oil and Natural Gas-Mittal Group combine when price bids were made on August 15, raised its bid to $ 4.18-billion to acquire PetroKazakhstan, a Canadian oil firm operating in Central Asia. ONGC-Mittal combine was not given a chance to match or rebid, ONGC sources said. In an early morning press statement, PetroKazakhstan said CNPC would pay $ 55 a share in cash. “The Indians were clearly ahead of Chinese in the first round. The merchant bankers acting on behalf of the seller (PetroKazakhstan) had even sought certain clarification on their bid on Friday. The Indians were to submit the clarifications today but the sale announcement came before that,” a Kazakh source said. PetroKazakhstan made the sale announcement at 0730 hrs London time, at least a couple of hours ahead of the scheduled filing by ONGC-Mittal combine at the London office of the merchant banker. The Kazakh official said the Indian consortium had told the merchant bankers on Friday (August 19) that they were willing to better their bid of close to $ 4 billion if certain information on PetroKazakhstan’s operation was provided. “That never happened,” the official said but was unable to explain why the Indians were not given a chance to rebid. PetroKazakhstan accounts for about 12 per cent of oil production in Kazakhstan and is the third largest oil producer in that country. It owns 500 million barrels of reserves, 150,000 barrels a day of crude output and a refinery in Kazakhstan. State-owned KzaMunaiGas is the largest oil producer in Kazakhstan, followed by Chevron. Calgary-based PetroKazakhstan’s board recommended that its shareholders accept the Chinese oil company’s offer. The transaction is expected to close in October, the company statement said. PetroKazakhstan was the first company India’s flagship ONGC had bid for jointly with the world’s largest steel producer Mittal Group. ONGC had teamed up with Mittals to leverage the steel maker’s dominant position in former Soviet republics. Out of the 14 countries Mittal Group had business interest in, six to seven had oil and gas opportunities. In Kazakhstan, where Mittal Group has huge business interest and considerable influence on the government, OVL has been eyeing a stake in Kurmangazy oilfield besides interest in Makhambet and Satpayev exploration blocks. — PTI
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Flat FDI inflow worries Montek, Mulford
New Delhi, August 22 While Dr Ahluwalia said the splurge in FIIs flows was not such that it could destabilise the capital markets or the financial system, Mr Mulford said this phenomena was unique to India and the country needed to ponder over this. While FII flows into the stock markets were increasing by the day, FDI inflows had been flat. Both Dr Ahluwalia and Mr Mulford were sharing the dais at a seminar by the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Amcham). While Dr Ahluwalia spoke on “India’s FDI Policies,” Mr Mulford gave a talk on “Emerging Economic Cooperation between India and the USA.” These remarks came during an interaction with the floor, which followed the address by the two personalities. Mr Mulford listed the steps that India needed to take to scale up FDI flows to China’s levels. The business environment for FDI needed to be made much more attractive, he said. This included not overburdening businesses with a plethora of procedures and regulations, not micro managing business enterprises, setting up regulators in industry and other sectors, drastically reducing legal delays, opening up retail business to FDI, reforms in the real estate sector as well as agriculture and further liberalisation of the economy. Mr Mulford said these lessons he had learnt from his substantial years of experience of working in both the public and private sectors. He said he was in complete agreement with the suggestions Mr Mulford had given regarding creating a more competitive environment for domestic and foreign business.
— UNI
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Mittal Steel inks mining deal with Liberia
Rotterdam (The Netherlands), August 22 The agreement, which requires ratification by the Liberian senate, will give Mittal access to about one billion tonnes of rich iron ores reserves in western Liberia for an investment of about $ 900 million. The cost will cover the development of mines, railway and port infrastructure and some community development in the project, Mr Mittal said in a statement. A spokesman told AFP the project was expected to last between 25 to 30 years. “Liberia has a long tradition in iron-ore mining... Unfortunately, due to the war the mines were abandoned and most of the infrastructure destroyed,” Liberian minister Jonathan Mason is quoted as saying in the Mittal statement. — AFP
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Punjab plywood industry to raise prices
Ludhiana, August 22 “The prices of inputs such as wood, chemicals, petrol, diesel, electricity rates have increased by 20 to 25 per cent which has threatened the sustainability of our units. Therefore, we have decided to jack up the prices of finished products by 10 per cent in order to neutralise the price effect to some extent,” secretary-general of Punjab Plywood Manufacturers Association Ashok Juneja said. “Punjab would be the third state in the country after Haryana and Gujarat to raise the prices of plywood and plyboard,” said Mr Juneja. The Rs 100 crore plywood industry is also upset over the imposition of VAT on plywood and plyboard at the rate of 12.5 per cent. “The 12.5 rate of VAT has turned out to be a big hindrance in the growth of plywood industry as it has led to the increase in the prices of finished products,” Mr Juneja said adding that Delhi has reduced the VAT rate to four per cent on plywood, which would also render Punjab industry uncompetitive. — PTI
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GAIL to clean Beijing air
New Delhi, August 22 GAIL has proposed equity participation in Beijing Gas Company and Beijing Jianggang Gas for implementation of CNG projects in Beijing city. Beijing Gas Company has got the concession to introduce CNG in the municipal areas of Beijing. According to information available, China has decided to introduce CNG in Beijing city for converting entire transport vehicles by 2008 before the Olympics. Currently, the number of buses and taxis in Beijing are 20,000 and 80,000, respectively. GAIL hopes to bring down vehicular pollution levels significantly through this project as it did in Delhi and Mumbai.. GAIL has also been offered three cities in mainland China viz. Wuhu city in Anhui province, Huainan and Yichang cities in Hubei province for CNG projects.
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Airtel mulls $ 1 b expansion
Kolkata, August 22 Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines of a day-long GSM summit organised by CII, Mr Mittal said his company also planned to set up seven application centres in in the country to spread out the advanced technology of GSM telecom in every nook and corner of the country during this fiscal. These centres would come up in four metropolitan cities and in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. Referring to the appeal of the Union Government for greater participation of private telephone operators in materialising the government’s aspiration of bringing the entire rural India under wireless telephone services, he said under the coverage of 5000 towns, more that 2,50,000 villages would be brought under this rural telephony by Airtel itself.
— UNI
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OBC mulls jv in Malaysia with BoB, BoM
New Delhi, August 22 The Delhi-based bank also plans to open 20 more branches in the country as part of its plans to increase business by 33 per cent to Rs 1,00,000 crore this fiscal, OBC chairman K N Prithviraj said after inaugurating the bank’s first “retail shoppe” here today. “We are targeting Rs 1,00,000 crore business this fiscal, which will be 33 per cent growth higher than that of last fiscal,” he said. The bank also aimed at pushing up deposits to Rs 63,000 crore from Rs 47,000 crore in 2004-05. Of the total business, the erstwhile Global Trust Bank unit would contribute Rs 14,000 crore. OBC had taken over ailing GTB last year and taken a hit on its profits. OBC has roped in BoB and BoM to float a banking arm in Malaysia, Mr Prithviraj said. The three banks have applied to the RBI and are waiting for its permission, he said.
— PTI
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REL wants GAIL to pipe gas to Dadri plant
New Delhi, August 22 GAIL has offered to transport gas from Kakinada, the landfall point of natural gas from Reliance Industries’ owned Dhirubhai fields in offshore Krishna-Godavari basin, to Dadri by using a part of the existing Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) network, a company statement said here. Reliance Energy is looking for pipeline connectivity of gas for transporting about 20 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas required for the plant by 2008. REL has plans to expand the capacity of the Dadri power plant to 8,000 MW, thereby increasing the demand for gas to 40 mmscmd. “GAIL’s proposed pipeline from Kakinada will connect to the HVJ pipeline system at Vijaipur in Madhya Pradesh for supply of KG basin gas to REL’s power plant at Dadri,” the GAIL statement said. The KG gas can then be picked up by the HVJ line, which transits very close to the Dadri plant site. Reliance Energy spokesperson could not be immediately contacted for comments.
— PTI
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Assocham demands uniform VAT on tea
New Delhi, August 22 In a memorandum submitted to the member secretary to the committee, Assocham President Mahendra K. Sanghi said ICE was still charged to VAT at 4 per cent which has put a large number of exporters of frozen products into undue hardships, rendering their export transactions uncompetitive in the international market. This has been happening in all VAT- implementing states, barring Karnataka. Similarly, tea trade is continued to be subjected to over 12 per cent VAT levy in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa where it should have been reduced to 4 per cent.
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Modern Automobiles wins Maruti awards
Chandigarh, August 22 The awards were received by Mr Madhu Sudan Vij, CEO, Modern Automobiles Group from MrJagdish Khattar, Managing Director of Maruti Udyog Limited, at the awards ceremony held at Paris. Their Chandigarh dealership has clocked growth of 167 per cent since April, 2005, whereas the workshop growth has been 59 per cent.
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Microsoft to train TN teachers
Chennai, August 22 The trans-national software giant will provide computer training to 20,000 schoolteachers over a five-year-period. It will set up an information technology academy under the MoU.
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Oil steady above $ 65 UBI revises deposit rates Radico Khaitan Trading stopped Air Deccan IPO BoP launches dialysis centre BSNL introduces new schemes Dividend announced Hutch reduces STD tariff
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