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Mangalore Refinery to expand with Rs 12,800 cr
UP’s per capita debt Rs 8,112
Mittal upbeat on investors’ response
Securities transaction tax may be hiked
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M&M to enter personal loan market
West Bengal to help revive Dunlop India
Pak receives sugar from India
Rajasthan trucks top up fuel tanks in Haryana, Punjab
RBI Governor meets FM
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Mangalore Refinery to expand with Rs 12,800 cr
Mumbai, February 15 With the implementation of this project, the new refinery configuration will allow processing of higher proportion of low-cost sour and heavy crudes leading to better margin. The Board at its meeting held yesterday gave its nod for the upgradation of the refinery project, MRPL informed the Stock Exchanges. The refinery project, on commissioning, will significantly enhance value addition in the refinery product slate. The distillate yield would improve by about 11 per cent, to 83 per cent on crude. The company’s Chairman Subir Raha said this was the first of a series of major projects planned at Mangalore, and the integrated upgradation project would further improve cost-efficiency in the company. Production of new high-value products like propylene, paraxylene and Euro-III / Euro IV compliant gasoline and diesel, in good demand in international markets, is envisaged through this project. Estimated production of propylene and paraxylene from the upgraded refinery complex will be 300,000 TPA and 900,000 TPA, respectively. Looking to tap the high-priced Lubes market, a 250,00 TPA of Lube Oil Base Stock (LOBS) production facility would also be built as part of the upgradation project, producing high-end Group II (plus) and Group III LOBS. The project is expected to be completed in three-and-a half years.
— PTI
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ONGC hires rig for Rs 400 cr
State-owned ONGC will hire a drilling rig from Aban Loyd Chiles for its oil and gas hunt. Aban Loyd Chiles Offshore Ltd today said ONGC had decided to hire one of its rigs for a period of three years and would pay Rs 400 crore for it.
The company had received a letter of intent from ONGC for the Rig Aban II and the operations under this order would commence after completing the existing contract by October or November 2006, Aban Loyd informed the Stock Exchanges. If needed, dry-docking and upgradation will be carried out before commencement of the new contract.
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UP’s per capita debt Rs 8,112
Lucknow, February 15 The budgetary proposals for 2006-07 were announced today by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. Sources said the debt trap was unsustainable as it was 47.9 per cent of the Gross State Domestic product (GSDP). Sources maintained that the UP loan burden was the highest in the country and it would be hard to revive the economy from the debt trap. The debt of borrowings on the state, especially through market loans, is expected to touch Rs 30,762.62 crore by the end of the year 2006-2007. The total borrowing of the state is expected to be around Rs 1,37,914.92 crore in the next financial year as against Rs 1,26,526.32 crore in the current year. With the state population touching around 170 million, the debt on each individual works out to be over Rs 8,112.
— UNI
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Mittal upbeat on investors’ response
London, February 15 Mittal Steel’s unsolicited bid for its closest rival, Arcelor, offering a mix of cash and shares, was worth 18.6 billion euros ($22.2 billion) when unveiled on January 27 but has risen since in line with its shares and is now worth Euro 19.6 billion. Finance Director Aditya Mittal said: “We have met a considerable number of (Arcelor) shareholders. We estimate it at between 30 to 40 per cent of the shareholder base. The response is positive, they understand the strategic rationale of the transaction.” A deal between Mittal Steel and Arcelor would create a company with a global steel market share of about 10 per cent, three times larger than its nearest rival. Chairman and Chief Executive Lakshmi Mittal said in a statement: ‘’We are pleased with the very positive reception our offer has received, and are confident that progress is being made towards establishing the regulatory framework for the offer’’. Despite opposition from Arcelor management and politicians, analysts have said they favour the move although Mittal Steel may have to sweeten its bid. Several investors said on Tuesday they wanted a higher offer. Mittal said fourth-quarter net income rose to $650 million from $478 million in the third quarter, but was down from $1.55 billion in the final quarter of 2004 partly due to higher costs. The numbers resulted in a full-year net income of $3.365 billion, or $4.90 earnings per share. The corresponding figures for 2004 were $4.70 billion and $7.31 respectively. Overnight, Luxembourg said it had has hired investment banker J.P. Morgan to advise it on the offer to buy Arcelor, in which the Grand Duchy owns a minority stake. The Luxembourg government said in a statement issued late on Tuesday it wanted an independent and professional opinion on the offer. Arcelor is due to publish annual results on Thursday. Meanwhile, The Independent quoted the embattled steel group Arcelor saying there is no industrial “white knight” and it will have to fight off the £13 billion bid. Guy Dolle, the chief executive, said: “An industrial white knight doesn’t exist and I don’t believe in a financial one either.”
— Reuters
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Securities transaction tax may be hiked
New Delhi, February 15 As it could generate substantial revenue ,the government is reconsidering to restore the transaction tax on equity and derivatives, highly placed sources in the Finance Ministry told The
Tribune. The present rate on equity is 0.10 per cent and on derivatives 0.02 per cent. The Finance Minister in the 2004-05 Budget had proposed 0.015 per cent as the securities transaction tax. Under pressure from the stock brokers, the UPA Government reduced the transaction tax. Even at the reduced level, the government had collected around Rs 3,000 crore from this tax so far this fiscal. Ministry officials said the government planned to increase this tax, considering the strong fundamentals of the economy and projected double- digit GDP growth. The ministry is considering two alternatives, said official sources, either to revise the transaction tax to 0.5 per cent or to introduce a flat rate of 0.10 per cent for both delivery and non-delivery-based transactions. The tax on non-delivery-based transactions would also reduce speculation. In other words, it would affect price discovery and discourage people from investing in volatile stocks. To encourage people to invest in mutual funds, the government is also considering to give some tax concession, especially for infrastructure-related funds. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has already called upon the public sector banks to desist from raising interest rates that could adversely affect the ongoing consumption and investment boom in the economy. After meeting a 30 per cent increase in agricultural credit rate, they said, the Finance Minister was likely to emphasise on measures to bring a further fall in interest rates for the priority sector, including small and medium enterprises. “Though we are not so much concerned about a 0.25 per cent or 0.5 per cent hike in interest rate for corporate, auto or personal loans, efforts would be made to create an environment to bring down interest rate for the priority sector,” said a highly placed source in the ministry. Talking about the dilemma of the government to cut tax duties on petro products to safeguard the oil companies, he said: “We have limited options at a time when the international crude prices are ruling at a high rate. Sooner or
later, the companies may be forced to pass on the burden to the consumers.”
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Nalco eyes West Asia for expansion
Baddi, February 15 This was revealed by the Director (Projects and Technical) and Chairman- cum-Managing Director of Nalco, Mr C.R. Pradhan, who was here to inaugurate a stockyard of Nalco. This stockyard of primary aluminium products would cater to customers, mainly electrical industry, in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. “The expenditure on power and gas comprised 40 per cent of the cost of aluminium. Since power and gas is cheaper in West Asia, we will take alumina to these overseas facilities for conversion to aluminium,” he revealed. Mr Pradhan revealed that the country’s premiere aluminium manufacturing company was also looking at exploring the 500 million tonnes of bauxite (chief ore of aluminium) reserves in the Naxalite-hit areas of Andhra Pradesh. The CMD said Nalco was showing a steady annual growth rate of eight to 10 per cent) and had embarked on an ambitious four-year expansion plan. The company proposed to set up an alumina plant at Andhra and take over the alumina plant in Gandhamardham, (Orissa).
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M&M to enter personal loan market
New Delhi, February 15 He said the company had also entered into an agreement with oil major HPCL to offer its financial products at around 500 company-owned oil pumps in semi-urban and rural areas. The company would enter the capital market on February 21 with an initial public offer (IPO) of 20 million equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a premium to be decided through the book- building
process. The company had fixed the price band for the issue between Rs 170 and Rs 200 per share. The issue closes on February 24. The IPO is likely to raise between Rs 340 and Rs 400 crore to augment the company’s growing business opportunities.
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West Bengal to help revive Dunlop India
Kolkata, February 15 Replying to a calling-attention motion in the State Assembly moved by Congress member Abdul Mannan, Mr Sen the prospective management of DIL under the Ruia group, which had acquired majority shares of the company from the Jumbo group led by late M.L. Chhabaria, has been advised to bilaterally discuss the issues of relief and concessions for the revival of the unit. They have been further advised to send a comprehensive revival scheme to the state government as well as to others, including the SBI operating agency appointed by the Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction for finalisation. Accordingly, the new management has started negotiations with the agencies concerned.
— PTI
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Pak receives sugar from India
Lahore, February 15 The Dawn has quoted the Sugar Dealers Associations chief Asghar Butt as saying that a private group yesterday imported sugar from India at a price of $ 440 per tonne, which amounts to Rs 32.25 per kg local price. The addition of overhead charges and the profit margin in the retail price will increase the price to Rs 34-35 in the open market. The local price of sugar started sliding from Rs 38 per kg ex-mill price three days ago to Rs 36.5.
— UNI
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Rajasthan trucks top up fuel tanks in Haryana, Punjab
Jaipur, February 15 Similarly, the sales tax on petrol is 25 per cent, 20 per cent and 28 per cent in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, respectively. As a result of this variation in the rates, diesel in Haryana is cheaper by about Rs. 2.50 per litre while the cost of petrol is less by nearly Rs. 3.50 per litre as compared to the rates being charged in the neighbouring state. Studies undertaken by the state Sales Tax department have revealed that petrol and diesel dealers of the border districts of Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Churu and Jhunjhunu districts are being hit hard in as much as that the truck operators of these areas prefer to meet their fuel requirements from the pumps installed in the bordering territory of Punjab and Haryana.
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RBI Governor meets FM
New Delhi, February 15 Mr Reddy, known for his deft handling of the monetary policy to keep the inflation under check without affecting growth momentum, had a detailed meeting lasting about an hour.
— PTI
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