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India receives $27 b
remittances in 2007: WB
Rising towards 6%
Govt cuts import duty on edible oils
GMR in pact with Turkey
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Oil falls below $100
SBI looking for partners for $3 billion Tata loan
Reliance Inds has underestimated gas field cost: valuers
Gold falls by Rs 1,110
HTC ties up with RCom
Essar in race for ArcelorMittal arm
Nod to Sunwise Properties SEZ
Haryana Ind opposes entry tax
Remove import duty on scrap iron: Punjab
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India receives $27 b remittances in 2007: WB
Washington, March 20 The top five recipients of remittances in 2007 were India ($ 27 billion), China ($ 25.7 billion), Mexico ($ 25 billion), the Philippines ($ 17 billion), and France ($ 12.5 billion), according to the report titled ‘Migration and Remittances Factbook 2008’. “In many developing countries, remittances provide a life line for the poor. They are often an essential source of foreign exchange and a stabilising force for the economy in turbulent times,” said Dilip Ratha, senior economist with the World Bank, and co-author of the report. The inward remittances to India has more than doubled from around $ 12.89 billion in 2000 to $ 27 billion in 2007. In 2006, inward remittances were $ 25.43 billion, while the outward flow constituted around $ 1.58 billion. Rich countries are still the main source of remittances with the United States leading the pack. “The United States is by far the largest, with $ 42 billion in recorded outward flows in 2006. Saudi Arabia ranks as the second largest, followed by Switzerland and Germany,” the factbook added. The US was also the top immigration country in 2005, with 38.4 million immigrants, followed by the Russian Federation (12.1 million), and Germany (10.1 million). Among low-income countries, India had the highest immigration volume of 5.7 million, followed by Pakistan (3.3 million), it stated. — PTI
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Rising towards 6%
New Delhi, March 20 With inflation just short of 6 per cent mark, it may not allow the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates despite sluggish industrial growth, analysts said. “It seems that the RBI will maintain status quo as far as interest rates are concerned in the immediate future," Crisil principal economist DK Joshi said. Wholesale prices-based inflation rate surged despite high base of 6.51 per cent a year-ago. "Our inflation has got linked with the global price trend as commodity prices and food prices are contributing maximum to the domestic inflation data," Joshi said. During the week, basic metal, alloys and metal products group rose by 6.7 per cent. Among food products prices of arhar, gram and moong went up by 3 per cent. At the same time, fruits and vegetables, maize, and condiments and spices were expensive by one per cent. Manufactured products like imported edible oil, coconut oil, and mustard oil, also turned dearer. The government had announced a ban on export of all edible oils with effect from March 17, for one year to curb their rising prices. There has been spurt in global oil prices, as many countries are using them With the rupee reversing its appreciating spree of late, imports of both petroleum and non-petro products are no longer cheaper. "In fact, we are importing inflation," Joshi said. India is not alone where inflation is surging ahead. In China, inflation has hit nearly 12-year high of 8.7 per cent in February, while Hong Kong has registered the fastest pace in the rate of price rise since 1977. Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan had yesterday said the current inflation rate did not favour interest rates cut policy. His statement had come when inflation rate was 5.11 per cent. With the figures, released today, a possibility of such cuts has become more remote, analysts said.
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Govt cuts import duty on edible oils
New Delhi, March 20 "The government has reduced import duty on crude palm oil, including crude palmolein from 45 per cent to 20 per cent and refined palm oil including RBD palmolein from 52.5 per cent to 27.5 per cent," a government official said. The reduction in import duties of these commodities will be effective from midnight. He said the import duty has also been cut on other edible oils such as mustard, sunflower, rapeseed and canola. "In fact, we have made duties at two levels — 20 per cent and 27.5 per cent — for most of the edible oils except soyabean oils," he said.
— PTI |
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GMR in pact with Turkey
Ankara, March 20 The GMR-led consortium will be developing facilities for trebling the passenger capacity of the Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGAI) at Istanbul with an investment of 250 million euros (about Rs 1,600 crore), a company release said. In addition to making an initial investment to increase the capacity of the airport to 10 million passengers per annum in 30 months, the consortium will pay 1.92 billion euros of concession fee spread over 20 years to Turkey. It will recover the money through various aviation and related activities, upgradation of the Sabiha Gocken Airport, named after a woman combat pilot and adopted daughter of the father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, will be the first major overseas infrastructure project which will be undertaken by an Indian company in the aviation sector. "This project will increase the international exposure of the GMR Group...It will also serve as the ideal reference for entering into other European countries," GMR international division CEO Ranjit Murugason said.
— PTI |
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New York, March 20 Crude oil for May delivery fell by $2.95 to $99.59 a barrel in after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil is up 76 per cent from a year ago. US gasoline demand in the past four weeks averaged 3.2 per cent less than last year, the Energy Department said. The oil has fallen 11 per cent from a record this week, tracking declines in gold, wheat and metals, as the dollar strengthened, reducing the need for inflation hedges. — Bloomberg
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SBI looking for partners for $3 billion Tata loan
Mumbai, March 20 PSBs likely to join the consortium of financiers are Bank of India (BoI), Bank of Baroda (BoB), Indian Overseas Bank (IoB) and Syndicate Bank, while the foreign banks are Barclays, HSBC, DBS and Singapore-based United Overseas Bank, a source close to the development said. “SBI is looking at enhancing the number of entities in the consortium to 20 so that the burden of financing such a huge sum can be distributed amongst them,” the source said. The country’s largest lender has already started talks with all eight banks to be a part of the consortium and will come out with an official announcement soon, the source said. The foreign institutions comprised not only of Citi Bank and JP Morgan but also Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas, Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho Financial Group, the source said. Sources said SBI plans to raise the amount by the second half of April to enable Tata Motors to complete the acquisition soon. Financers in the consortium will normally receive commissions in the range of 0.50-1 per cent of the deal amount but it may vary according to the period of funding and the amount to be raised, the source said. — PTI
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Reliance Inds has underestimated gas field
New Delhi, March 20 Houston-based Mustang International, which was contracted by the government to audit the capital expenditure prepared by RIL for the Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields in block KG-D6, put the cost for such field development at $ 9.035 billion, official sources said. Mustang, a member of the Wood Group of the US, presented a voluminous analysis of the field development plan, which was compared with international cost to make a detailed report. “Using the lengths, quantities and equipment as specified, the validation team produced a deterministic estimate of $ 9.035 billion, in contrast to the RIL estimate of $ 8.836 billion,” the report stated. RIL had in an initial field development plan (FDP) estimated cost of producing 40 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from the two fields at $ 2.321 billion. It later revised the FDP to $ 5.197 billion in Phase-I lasting 2008-end and a further $ 3.639 billion in Phase-II on account of more number of wells and associated gas handling, processing and transportation facilities to double the output to 80 mmscmd. But the increase in cost was seen as ‘gold-plating’ by certain sections, prompting the government to order an independent validation. The independent valuers’ report is expected to put an end to the controversy, sources said.
—PTI |
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Gold falls by Rs 1,110
New Delhi, March 20 There
was nervous selling by stockists, sparked by weakening global trend. The precious metal crashed after reports of gold heading for its biggest weekly drop in 25 years in London. A strengthening dollar eroded the gold’s appeal as an alternative investment.
— PTI |
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HTC ties up with RCom
Mumbai, March 20 “We are developing a product, a smartphone, to hit below the Rs 10,000-mark. We hope to launch it in the next six months," HTC (India) country manager Ajay Sharma said. The HTC smartphones are now available at price points of Rs 11,500 to Rs 34,000, which is competitive to those manufactured by firms like Blackberry and Nokia. Last year, the company sold about 10 million devices world over. “India remains to be our fastest growing market and the sales in second half of 2007 grew by as much as 300 per cent over the first half," Sharma said. "We have set ourselves an ambitious target of one million smartphones in India by 2009," he added. Earlier, HTC announced its foray into CDMA technology in a tie-up with Reliance Communications. HTC launched two new devices - HTC P3000 and HTC S720 — exclusively for Reliance customers. RCom president S.P Shukla said the alliance was in line with our intent to offer high-end devices to customers to help them access email, Internet and data applications on the move. HTC president Peter Chou said India was an important market for the company and it would launch many more products shortly. — PTI
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Essar in race for ArcelorMittal arm
New Delhi, March 20 "The most prominent suitors continue to be Russian producers, although India’s Essar Group also has been mentioned prominently, according to market sources," the Metal Bulletin reported. JSC Severstal, Evraz Group SA and OJSC Novolipetsk Steel are all considered in the running for the plant, which the US Justice Department ordered ArcelorMittal to divest as part of anti-trust concerns related to tinplate production in the eastern US. — PTI
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Nod to Sunwise Properties SEZ
New Delhi, March 20 The Board of Approval took up nine proposals, of which five were granted formal approvals and one in-principle. Of the five formal approvals granted today, four are for setting up IT/ITES zones by Brigade Enterprises in Karnataka, Wellgrow Buildcon and Sunwise Properties in Haryana and Smart City (Kochi) Infrastructure in Kerala.
— PTI |
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Haryana Ind opposes entry tax
Chandigarh, March 20 They rue that at the time when the country was moving towards a one-tax regime in the form of a Goods and Services Tax, a forward looking state like Haryana has decided to impose another tax to replace the Local Area Development Tax. Finance minister Birinder Singh has already announced that an entry tax will be imposed in Haryana this year in order to make up for the revenue loss arising because of the roll back of
LADT. Though no announcements have been made with regards to the percentage of the value of goods on which tax is to be imposed, officials maintain that it could be about 2 per cent. Though Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was evasive over the adverse impact of entry tax on trade and industry, he said the act would be framed soon and placed before the Assembly. “The entry tax will be imposed on stock transfer of goods and since it is expected to replace LADT, the entry tax to be imposed in the state could be 2 per cent,” informed a senior official in the Excise and Taxation Department. |
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Remove import duty on scrap iron: Punjab
Chandigarh, March 20 In a communiqué addressed to the finance minister, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal requested him to declare iron ore as a national heritage product as its stocks were limited. He also underscored the need to set up a regulatory commission, which would be a step in the right direction to resolve all the emerging issues relating to steel prices. The Chief Minister mentioned that Punjab had a large number of small-scale industrial (SSI) units and was one of the largest consumers of steel. He pointed out that the representatives of the industries had brought to his notice time and again that the main producers of steel raise the prices of steel arbitrarily and at frequent intervals thereby adversely affecting the growth of industries in general and crippling the SSI units of the state in particular. Badal further stated that the units here have to pay higher freight charges as compared to other states, which are located near these plants. As a result, the SSI units of Punjab could not compete in the market and, therefore, these required a substantial special rebate on steel from the main producers, he suggested.
— UNI |
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