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ONGC loses 3 deep-sea exploration blocks
ATF rates hiked again
Home loans get more expensive
Maruti hikes car prices
Reliance’s agri-retail project set to take off
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Essar calls off BPL Mobile sale deal with Hutchison
HPCL open to partners for Bathinda refinery
Banks write off over Rs 40,000 crore
Indian banks facing curbs in US: FM
HTW mulls beverage can unit
Tech Mahindra, Motorola to invest $12.5 m
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ONGC loses 3 deep-sea exploration blocks
New Delhi, August 1 “... it has been decided to offer these blocks in the ensuing rounds of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP),” Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. The ONGC had roped in BG as partner in the three Krishna Godavari basin blocks it had won on a nomination basis a few years ago. But, validity of the exploration licence of the three blocks has either already expired or would expire next year, prompting the government to take back the blocks. Mr Patel said the ONGC was in April, 2000, given NELP terms to enable it to seek strategic alliances to explore and develop six deep-sea blocks, which include three blocks in the Krishna Godavari basin. “The validity of the licence in respect of one of these three blocks has already expired while the other two blocks are due to expire in January and May, 2007,” he said. However, it was only in 2006 that the ONGC approached the Oil Ministry seeking “in-principle” approval to have strategic alliance with British Gas, in respect of the three KG blocks. “The ONGC offer of these blocks does not seem to have been able to generate sufficient interest among bidders, whereas under NELP offerings, extremely keen competition has been witnessed, particularly for all KG blocks,” he said. “Considering these factors, within the overall exploration policy of the government of India regarding a level playing field and emphasis on transparency, it has been decided to offer these blocks in the coming rounds of NELP upon the expiry of their Petroleum Exploration Licence validity,” Mr Patel
added. — PTI
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ATF rates hiked again
New Delhi, August 1 The ATF price for domestic airlines in Delhi rose by Rs 1,063.93 to Rs 42,367.51 a kilo litre (kl) with effect from today, an IOC official said. The jet fuel price in Mumbai went up to Rs 43,826.43 per kl from Rs 42,731.31 per kl last month. For international airlines, which unlike domestic airlines don’t pay sales tax, the ATF price in Delhi rose by $12.17 to $697.58 per kl. The hike in Mumbai was $12 per kl to $692.32 per kl. Public sector fuel retailing companies revise jet fuel prices once a month.
— PTI |
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Home loans get more expensive
Mumbai, August 1 However, HDFC has not changed interest rates on deposits, bank sources said here. With this hike, the floating rate for home loans will be 9.5 per cent as against the previous 9 per cent, while the new fixed rate will be 11 per cent from 10.5 per cent earlier. The primary lending rate of the banking major will be 12.25 per cent against earlier 11.75 per cent. The RBI had hiked its short term lending and borrowing rates by 0.25 per cent, a week ago, aiming to keep a check on rising inflation. Following this, many banks had indicated that they would hike their home and auto loan rates. After HDFC, Punjab National Bank too announced 0.5 per cent hike in home loan rates and 0.25 per cent increase in other lending rates. “Interest rate on housing loan is hiked by 50 basis points (0.5 per cent) while benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) has been raised by 25 basis points,” a senior bank official said. The new lending rates are effective from today. The floating home loan interest rates now vary between 8.75 per cent and 9.75 per cent while the fixed home loan rates has gone up to 10 per cent from 9.75 per cent for loans up to 5 years. The bank increased its BPLR to 11.50 per cent from 11.25 per cent. Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda also announced a hike in its BPLR by 50 basis points from 11 per cent to 11.5 per cent. The bank has also decided to revise upwards its deposit rates across various maturities, it said in a release here. Syndicate Bank has also revised upwards the interest rates on housing loans from 0.75 per cent to 1.25 per cent. And the Oriental Bank of Commerce has increased home loan rates by 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent effective from August 8. The State Bank of India, meanwhile, has hiked prime lending rate by 0.25 per cent from 10.75 per cent to 11 per cent.
— PTI |
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Maruti hikes car prices
New Delhi, August 1 The increase, with effect from today, varies from 0.17 per cent to 1.47 per cent, and is necessitated due to a rise in input costs and freight. The company said while it had absorbed a portion of the increased costs, it had decided to pass on a part of this to customers. Post the price hike, MUL’s best selling model ‘Alto’ and ‘M800’ will be dearer by Rs 500 across all variants. The highest price hike is on the newly launched ‘WagonR LPG’ variant, which will be costlier by Rs 5,000 while the mid-size sedan ‘Esteem’ will see a rise of Rs 1,000 across all variants. It has also hiked the prices of ‘Omni’ across all variants ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 3,000, the company said . It, however, said there would be no change in the prices of ‘Swift’, ‘Zen’, ‘Baleno (Vxi)’ and ‘WagonR (Petrol)’. Last month, Maruti’s nearest rival, Hyundai Motors India, had also hiked the prices of its models, including
‘Santro’. — PTI |
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Reliance’s agri-retail project set to take off
Chandigarh, August 1 Talking to TNS here today, Mr Sanjay Asthana, President Agri Business, Reliance, said the company would invest Rs 1500 crore to Rs 2000 crore in West Bengal for setting up its agri-retail business. “The farm-to-fork concept will be launched in the state to produce vegetables and for dairy and dairy products. However, the dairy product business will not be on the same scale as in Punjab, as dairying is not as common in the eastern state,” he said. The proposal is to set up rural agriculture hubs, which will act as retail outlets for all kinds of consumer goods, though 40 per cent of the goods will be farm products. These rural hubs will also offer extension services like information on seeds, weather, soil health will be provided by agriculture and soil experts. The company will also set up state-of-art supply chain facilities and food processing units. Mr Asthana said they would enter into agreements for contract farming with farmers in the state, besides hiring farmers to cultivate crops for the company. Other than West Bengal and Punjab, the Reliance agri business will also take wings in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The company has already signed an MoU with the government of Himachal Pradesh for setting up rural agriculture hubs at 22 locations and will be procuring apples and vegetables from there to source it to other parts of the country and abroad. In Haryana, the HSIDC has allotted two industrial plots of 15 acres each at Rai (Sonipat) and Saha (Yamunanagar) to Reliance Industries. |
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Essar calls off BPL Mobile sale deal with Hutchison
Mumbai, August 1 Essar Teleholdings had acquired BPL Mobile, Mumbai, and three other circles for $1.15 billion last year and in turn sold three circles to Hutchison Essar, while striking a deal with the JV for sale of Mumbai circle subject to necessary approvals. Even as the deadline for approvals, July 31, was approaching, Essar is believed to have been approached by a number of prospective buyers, including A.V. Birla group, Maxis and some West Asian companies. When contacted, Essar Teleholdings Director Vikash Saraf confirmed that his company had terminated the deal with Hutchison and their immediate priority would be to build the BPL, Mumbai’s operations and add value to it. Asked if Essar would sell BPL (Mumbai) business to some other telecom player or investor, Mr Saraf declined to comment. Sources said a couple of telecom players and some West Asian companies had evinced interest but there was no formal confirmation. Although it was not clear as to what price Essar sold the three circles to Hutchison-Essar, it was presumed that the three circles were passed on for nearly half the total $1.15 billion that the corporate house paid to acquire BPL’s business. The sources said that the deal was called off because there was no clarity regarding whether and when the government approvals would be received. — PTI
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HPCL open to partners for Bathinda refinery
Mumbai, August 1 “We had planned to raise this fund through a mix of debt and equity. We have already completed the debt portion of it and open to strategic partners for the project,” Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd CMD M. B. Lal said here. HPCL had planned the nine million tonne refinery at Bathinda in Punjab with BP, which decided not to go ahead with the joint venture, saying that “the investment climate in India did not suit new investments in refining and fuel marketing.” HPCL is said to be in talks with Total of France for the venture. Earlier, HPCL had said that it would complete the project on its own and go for an IPO near the completion date of 2010. HPCL
suffered a revenue loss of Rs 2,133 crore for the quarter following the deficit of Rs 5.50 a litre on petrol, Rs 7.84 on diesel, Rs 18 on kerosene and Rs 133 per LPG cylinder on the sale of these price-controlled items.
— PTI |
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Banks write off over Rs 40,000 crore
New Delhi, August 1 According to banking industry sources, most banks have written off loans of companies that have already vanished from the market and, despite provisions of the Securitisation Act, banks have not been able to recover that amount. The scheduled co-operative banks have also written off loans totalling over Rs 550 crore, including Rs 201.80 crore in 2003-04, Rs 224.51 crore in 2004-05 and Rs 128.97 crore during 2005-06. In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today, Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said: “the government has not reimbursed the amount written off by the banks as it is the result of internal decisions taken by the Boards of these banks.” The minister made it clear that the government had not extended any financial support to these banks to write off these bad loans. The Left parties and farmers’ organisations have called upon the government to write off farm loans of those farmers who are unable to repay their loans due to failure of crops, floods or draught or have already paid the interest amount twice the value of the principal. Finance Ministry sources said the ministry was under tremendous pressure from farm organisations and the Agriculture Ministry to consider at least a partial waiving off of loans in the states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala where farmers have committed suicides in large numbers. Meanwhile, the bankers have made it clear that after writing off such a large amount during the past three years, they are not in a position to make any provision for writing off additional loans. Rather, they said, the government would have to provide a budgetary support for the purpose. |
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Indian banks facing curbs in US: FM
New Delhi, August 1 “The US Federal Reserve follows a rather restrictive policy in granting foreign banks permission for opening branches...we have taken up the matter with the USA” at different forums, he said during question hour. He said New Delhi would continue to raise with the US authorities the need to give Indian banks more licences to open branches in that country. “Indian banks have branches in the USA but want to open more,” he said. Asked if India would follow the same principles when giving permission to US banks to open branches in India, Mr Chidambaram said “reciprocity will be a consideration in dealing with this matter.” He said Indian banks must open branches abroad to increase trade and investment and serve Indians living abroad. Indian banks have so far opened 110 branches abroad, 18 subsidaries, six joint ventures and 34 representative offices.
— PTI |
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HTW mulls beverage can unit
New Delhi, August 1 The joint venture will operate through a new entity, HTW Beverage Can India Pvt Ltd, and will be headed by HTWL Managing Director Sanjeev Bhatia. “The Indian beverage cans market is estimated at Rs 20,000 crore per annum, which is met by 100 per cent imports. Our project aims at total import substitution, through this plant, which is the first of its kind in India,” Mr Bhatia told reporters today. Besides meeting the local demand, the plant will cater to the demand of the neighbouring SAARC countries. The companies expect to sell 250-300 million cans by 2007-08. The Mumbai facility is in its advanced stage and is expected to start production by the year-end, with an initial capacity of 450 million cans a year, including DRD and DWI beverage cans.
— UNI |
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Tech Mahindra, Motorola to invest $12.5 m
New Delhi, August 1 The joint venture would create an integrated platform for providing applications and content services to mobile users, Union Minister for Communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran said after unveiling the logo for CanvasM here. “The company will be headquartered in Noida. We will be investing $10 million while Motorola will be pumping in $2.5 million,” Tech Mahindra President (International Operations) C.P. Gurnani said. The joint venture will implement end-user applications and content services, consistent service creation and a delivery and management framework utilising Motorola’s global applications management architecture. The company will have two research and development centres in Noida and Bangalore.
— PTI |
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Petition on ADC rejected
New Delhi, August 1 Rejecting the petitions by the Association of United Telecom Services Providers of India (AUSPI) and MTNL, TDSAT Chairman N. Santosh Hegde said: “We are not convinced by the arguments made on behalf of AUPSI and MTNL”. The two parties had challenged TRAI’s notification dated February 1, 2005, which denied them ADC on incoming international long distance and intra-circle calls. MTNL contended that the decision would hit its revenues to the tune of Rs 550 crore.
— PTI |
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TCS bags deal
Mumbai, August 1 |
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