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Dabhol project given mega power status
SAT sets aside SEBI ban on UBS Securities
India to import oil from Caspian Sea region
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Tata Steel to team up with Australian firm
TDSAT ruling on Tata Walky
ITS officers resent govt move
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Kolkata to ink MoU for Mysore airport
Independent directors add value to board: Mittal
Punjab yet to appoint FCI regional manager
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Dabhol project given mega power status
New Delhi, September 9 Under the mega project policy, the government will grant a host of fiscal concessions, including mega power project status and duty free import of LNG to the $ 2.94-billion power project. The project is likely to be restarted by 2006-end. According to official sources, the Finance Ministry is also expected to waive 5 per cent customs duty on import of 2.1 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to fire the 2,184 MW power plant. The Power Ministry, along with the state government, has been making serious attempts to revive the project. Though critics have wondered whether the RGPPL, a company promoted by GAIL and NTPC to run the project, will be able to supply power at Rs 2.30 per unit to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) after jump in gas prices. The government is, however, expecting that the waiver of import duty would help bring down the cost of fuel and enable power generation at the agreed price. GAIL and NTPC have assured that their investment in completion of LNG/marine facilities and power plant would not exceed $ 200 million. And if it does exceed, the institutional lenders would take the financial liability for the excess expenditure. The boards of both companies are expected to clear investment of Rs 500 crore as their equity contribution in the SPV that would take over the project. Other concessions given to Dabhol include waiver of customs duty on import of spare parts for five years and exemption from payment of service tax on construction and site preparation activities. The revival scheme also provides compensation to previous owners GE and Bechtel, who were demanding a total of $ 350 million. The government has agreed to give $ 145 million to GE and $ 160 million to Bechtel. Officials said any increase in the completion cost beyond the present estimate of $ 200 million would be absorbed by the Indian financial institutions such that the fixed cost would not vary. GAIL is targeting at an ex-ship LNG price in the range of $ 3.30 to 3.40 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) so as to generate power from Dabhol project at Rs 2.30 per unit with a fixed cost of Rs 0.93 per unit and a variable cost of Rs 1.37 per unit. The first phase 740 MW of the project is expected to start by June 2006.
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SAT sets aside SEBI ban on UBS Securities
Mumbai, September 9 "We do not find any reason to uphold the orders under Section 11 B and Section 11 (4) of the SEBI Act...We set aside the impugned order and uphold the appeal on the basis of the fact and circumstances of the case," the Tribunal said in its order on the appeal by UBS. The order was delivered by a two-member Bench after the presiding officer R Rajaratnam had excused himself from the case in July after his suggestion to consider amicable settlement in the case was rejected by SEBI through media without first informing the tribunal. The Tribunal, however, said: "SEBI is free to take any action if it so desires and if there is a prima facie case under any of the provisions of the SEBI Act, 1992 and FII regulations thereunder." SAT said the Section 11 (4) and 11 B which gives unrestricted power to SEBI to intervene for orderly functioning of the market is for safeguarding the market and not for penalising the persons for any violation. "From the impugned order which is issued one year after the event, we do not find any findings which suggest that appellant has done anything which endangers the investors or disruption of orderly development of securities market," it said, adding there was no emergency situation involved. SAT said the impugned order speaks of some delay and non-furnishing of information on the part of the UBS Securites. "Instead of invoking the provisions of Section 11B and Section 11 (4), we find Section 15 A could have handled the instant case more appropriately where there is an exact provision for handling delays in the submission of information," it said. In
a first action against those involved in May 17, 2004 market crash, SEBI
had prohibited UBS Securities Asia Ltd and its associates from issuing
off-shore derivative instruments (ODIs) with underlying Indian
securities for one year.
— PTI
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Govt issues 7 pc oil bonds
The government today announced the issue of 7 per cent oil bonds, maturing in 2012, for Rs 5,762.85 crore to liquidate outstanding claims of oil companies. The investment in bonds, aggregating to Rs 5,762.85 crore against oil pool account, will not be reckoned as an eligible investment for purpose of Statutory Liquidity Ratio
(SLR).
“The special bonds will be issued at par on September 9, 2005,” a Finance
Ministry press note said here today. These bonds will be transferable and
eligible for market ready forward transaction (repo).
— UNI
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India to import oil from Caspian Sea region
New Delhi, September 9 The ministry stated here today that a quantity of 6 lakh barrels (about 80
TMT) of crude oil would be transported from Azerbaijan through Baku-Subsa crude
pipeline in October this year and loaded in the tanker/vessel at Subsa port
(Georgia) at Black Sea. The ship would travel from Black Sea to Mediterranean
(through Bosphorus, Istanbul, Turkey) and to Red Sea (through Suez canal) to
BPCL’s Mumbai Refinery. During his recent visit to Azerbaijan, Mr Aiyar had wide ranging discussions with the authorities, and with Turkish authorities during his visit in late June 2005. Sourcing crude oil for meeting Indian requirements from an expanded basket was one of the key issues discussed during these visits. Azeri light crude oil is a sweat crude oil with a sulphur content of 0.1 per cent by weight. India currently imports about 75 per cent of its crude oil requirement and imported a quantity of about 96 million tonnes during 2004-2005 mainly from the West-Asia and Africa. This step opens up new possibilities of cooperation with the countries in this region, particularly in the shape of opening a new shipment route for crude oil bound to India.
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Tata Steel to team up with Australian firm
Jamshedpur, September 9 Speaking to reporters, Tata Steel Managing Director B. Muthuraman said that the joint venture to be finalised within three months, would be a 50:50 joint venture. The project cost would be Rs 1,500 crore, he said. He said that while the designing work would be done in Pune, production would be at Jamshedpur. Mr Muthuraman said that the company would also go ahead with the Titanium project in Tamil Nadu which would be completed in four phases at a cost of Rs 400 crore in phase I. He said that Tata Steel would go ahead alone with the project. Earlier, it was proposed that the company would enter a consortium with other partners like Outokumpu-Lurgi, Pincock Allen Holt of USA and Larsen & Toubro. Mr Muthuraman said the land had been already acquired for the project. In the second phase, another Rs 400 crore would be invested and another Rs 1,200 crore in the final phase. About other projects, he said that the chrome project in South Africa would start this year, while the construction of the Iranian plant was underway. Mr Muthuraman said that the Bangladesh project was at a preliminary stage. He
said as per the MoU entered with the Jharkhand government, the company
would invest Rs 53,000 crore in setting up greenfield steel plant.
— Agencies
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TDSAT ruling on Tata Walky
New Delhi, September 9 Officials of BSNL, a telecom PSU, said that as per the prevailing traffic pattern, it expected that the total outstanding ADC from Tata Tele-Services and other service providers would be about Rs 450 crore from such services. Besides the Tatas, there are other operators positioned as fixed wireless service providers, but offering
WLL(M), the PSU said. According to BSNL estimates, MTNL also owes
about Rs 40 crore for offering its ‘Garuda’ fixed wireless phones,
which are positioned as fixed phones but actually operating as WLL(M)
phones. Disallowing the TTSL’s petition, the order said: “Walky
should not be regarded as anything else but WLL (M). As per licensing
conditions, fixed wireless service has to be provided within the
subscriber premises, wherever it is not, it has to be treated as WLL
(M).”
— PTI
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ITS officers resent govt move
New Delhi, September 9 In a statement issued here today, the Indian Telecom Service Association (ITSA)
said the ITS officers were “systematically being marginalised in the
Department of Telecom by the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers to
gain control of this important and high growth sector”. The Department of Telecom has embarked upon a plan to shift all 2,200 ITS officers to surplus cell and bring in non-experienced deputationists from other ministries, including from armed forces to run BSNL/MTNL. The
ITSA said this was a “typical case of generalists trying to unduly
dominate the professionals and take away their career growth
opportunities. This action is neither in the national interest nor good
for the morale of qualified technocrats”. “Ironically, the
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) now wants to force ITS officers
to get absorbed in BSNL/ MTNL on terms and conditions which are
non-transparent and putting the career of the officers at stake in
addition to causing perpetual loss in emoluments. Our officers are being
intimidated so that they submit to the dictates of bureaucrats in DoT”,
the ITSA said.
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Maruti to roll out diesel cars next year
New Delhi, September 9 "The diesel car market has been growing in India in recent years. Suzuki Motor Corp is known for petrol engine technology and does not manufacture diesel engines. It obtained diesel engine technology largely to meet the requirements of Indian customers," MUL Chairman S Nakanishi told the company shareholders. He said the diesel engine plant would come up by the end of 2006, strengthening Maruti's leadership in passenger cars. The company plans to make investments in a new car plant and an engine and transmission plant in Manesar, Haryana. “The new car plant will augment production and help in meeting the higher anticipated demand," he said but did not give details of investment planned. The firm has drawn out ambitious programme for new model launches in the next five years, he said. Mr Nakanishi said Suzuki plans to make India its research and development hub for Asia outside Japan. Ford Endeavour —
Special Edition Ford today launched “Ford Endeavour - Special Edition” simultaneously in Delhi and Chandigarh. Designed especially for the Asian markets, the Ford Endeavour sports an authentic SUV styling Speaking at the launch of the special edition at Chandigarh, Mr P. Umashankar, General Manager, Customer Service Operations, Ford India, said Punjab, outside Delhi is a big market for SUV type of vehicles. With a 37 per cent market share in the country, Ford Endeavour leads the rapidly growing SUV segment in India. It is available in a new fiery Red in a 4X2 version and 4X4 option. The ex-showroom price for both the versions is Rs 14.50 lakh and Rs 15.39 lakh, respectively. This along with the global launch of a luxury car in India by the year-end, Ford India expects to double its sales to 50,000 units next year.
— PTI, TNS
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Kolkata to ink MoU for Mysore airport
Bangalore, September 9 Mr Kumar while speaking at a convocation here said the centre sanctioned Rs 40 crore for the project. He said reopening of the airport would give a fillip to the industrial climate in the city besides facilitating the IT sector which was coming up in a big way in Mysore. The Principal Secretary said efforts were also on to improve the other airports in the state. He said Rs 94 crore had already been spent on terminal buildings and new runways at the Mangalore airport.
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Alcatel ties up with C-DoT
Chennai, September 9 Union Telecommunications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said here today that the new company called C-DoT Alcatel Research Centre would be 51 per cent owned by Alcatel and 49 per cent by C-DoT. The Chennai-based joint venture company will be a global research and development centre for broadband wireless products with a primary focus for rural, urban and sub-urban Indian markets in compliance with the country's broadband requirement and spectrum allocation. The CEO of Alcatel, Mr Serge Tchuruk, said the total investment for this project would be Rs 3,300 crore and it would employ around 300 persons.
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Independent directors add value to board: Mittal
New Delhi, September 9 Speaking at a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr Sunil Mittal said the most important aspect was to make the right choice of people when appointing independent directors, added Mr Mittal. “There are two types of Independent Directors — Trophy Directors and Technical Experts. Any company’s Board has to be a mix of both. The person should have undisputed integrity and knowledge relevant to the company’s business,” he said. An independent director should be capable of taking judicious decisions. Their ability to press the board to bring high quality management to the company is also important, he added.
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Punjab yet to appoint FCI regional manager
Chandigarh, September 9 The FCI has its regional offices here which deals with Punjab and Haryana separately and senior regional managers are appointed from the IAS officers of the respective states. The procurement of paddy will start from October 1. The slot in the local FCI office which deals with Punjab had become vacant a few weeks ago after the “inappropriate” relieving of Mr K. Siva Prasad from the post of senior regional manager. After Mr Prasad, the charge was given to Mr T.C. Gupta, an IAS officer of Haryana cadre, who is a senior regional manager at the Panchkula regional office of the FCI.
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