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Allocated spectrum can’t be shared
Rising Re props up exports
3 export services get tax relief
Steel prices down amid speculations
Fiscal Loss |
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Videocon bids for Motorola’s mobile handset biz
GAIL to take over PMT gas marketing
RIL makes second gas discovery in KG basin
Bharti Airtel tests 3G services
Japanese Co to set up tyre-making unit in Haryana
Gold, silver nosedive
Reliance Money brings Canadian partner in broking biz
Aptech announces standalone results
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Allocated spectrum can’t be shared
New Delhi, April 1 Issuing new guidelines on sharing of infrastructure, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has said sharing the active infrastructure amongst service providers based on mutual agreements entered among them was permitted. “Active infrastructure sharing would be limited to antenna, feeder cable, Node B, Radio Access Network (RAN) and transmission system only. Sharing of the allocated spectrum will not be permitted,” the DoT said. The licensing conditions of UASL/CMSP will be suitably amended wherever necessary to permit such sharing. Earlier, only passive sharing of infrastructure was allowed by the DoT. Passive infrastructure includes telecom towers, shelters and repeaters. The move is expected to further lower the infrastructure costs incurred by the service providers. “The guidelines are aimed on reducing the input costs on telecom access providers which the telecom ministry hopes would facilitate in reduced tariff and increased tele-density in rural areas," the DoT said. Passive infrastructure may be shared in accordance with the existing provisions of licenses for base stations and unified access services. For giving financial incentives on infrastructure sharing in urban areas, the state governments shall be requested to charge an amount for setting up of the shared tower, irrespective of the number of service providers sharing it, that is at par with unshared tower. For giving financial incentives for infrastructure sharing in rural areas, all the eligible service providers /infrastructure providers category-I shall be allowed to participate in the forthcoming scheme of Universal Service Obligation Fund on infrastructure sharing irrespective of the fact they were beneficiaries in the first phase of the scheme within that particular area. To encourage concept of infrastructure sharing in rural and remote areas, no subsidy shall be paid if newly erected tower is not shared.
— PTI |
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Rising Re props up exports
New Delhi, April 1 As per the data released by the commerce ministry, export between April 07-February 08 has registered a growth of 22.9 per cent to $138.42 billion. On the other hand the cumulative imports for April 07-February 08 period were $210.89 billion showing a growth of 30.21per cent. Speaking about the good exports growth, Ganesh Kumar Gupta, president, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), said growth in exports shows the resilience of Indian exporters in the wake of rupee appreciation and decline in growth in traditional markets, Indian exporters are increasing their market access. Exports in February 08 alone grew by 35.25 per cent to $14.23billion, while the imports in February went up by 30.53 per cent to $18.46 billion. Economists say much of the deficit has been increasing due to high costs of crude in the international markets in the last 3-4 months as the price of each barrel of crude oil has reached $100. The 11-month trade deficit was placed at $72.46 billion against $ 49.32 billion a year-ago. The rising imports and the widening of trade deficit are being attributed to the country reducing duties in the wake of shortages of many commodities, especially in food. According to a CII study, exports from India are expected to touch $200 billion by 2009, maintaining an annual growth of over 20 per cent for the 2004-09 period. A CEO survey conducted by the CII on the Foreign Trade Policy said to sustain the growth of exports, the government should continue tax refund schemes such as Duty Entitlement Pass Book, Export Promotion Capital Goods, Duty Free Import Authorisation in the next fiscal as well. The survey said exporters are looking for new export promotion schemes from the annual supplement, to be announced on April 7. The new scheme would help exporters in getting raw material at cheaper cost and make the Indian products more competitive in the international markets, it added. The CEOs said the government should further simplify export and import procedures for small and medium enterprises, which contributes a large portion of total exports from the country. |
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3 export services get tax relief
New Delhi, April 1 With this, the exporters will now receive refunds of taxes paid on 16 services. Service tax paid by exporters on input services used for export goods is neutralised under various existing schemes. These are taxable services which are directly relatable to export goods and that is why a relief for the same has been given, said a finance ministry official. Refund of taxes paid on commission to foreign agents has been a long standing demand of exporters, especially from the pharma and textile sectors. They pay about 10-15 per cent commission to agents in foreign markets. This results in a burden of around 1.8 per cent of the export value. Commerce minister Kamal Nath had announced a refund of service tax for exporters in last year’s annual supplement to the foreign trade policy. In September last year, the finance ministry made the first-ever move to refund service tax paid by exporters on non-input services like those offered by ports and goods transport agency. In February, the ministry had extended the service tax refund scheme for exporters to three more taxable services, taking the total number to 13. The rupee had appreciated by more than 8 per cent against the US dollar during 2007-08, hitting the exporters hard, though of late it had started falling. |
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Steel prices down amid speculations
Chandigarh, April 1 Traders in the region said since last month, the price of various varieties of steel has come down by Rs 3,000 per ton. While price of ingot steel have come down by Rs 1,500 per ton today, MS round price has come down by Rs 2,000 per ton. With the main steel producers set to meet the steel minister in Delhi today, and the government already giving indication regarding a cut in duties, secondary steel producers slashed their prices today. Darshan Singh, managing director, Mandi Gobindgarh- based Luxmi Steels, said MS round were today selling at Rs 31,500 per ton ad ingot price had come down to Rs 36,700 per ton. “These rates have been slashed by the steel producers here, in a bid to give a fillip to the laggard business. There has been a slowdown in demand for steel in the infrastructure industry because of high prices. This decrease in demand has also led to a fall in prices,” he said. However, there has been no change in price of steel scrap and sponge iron - the main raw material for manufacture of steel. The price of steel scrap varies between Rs 27,000 per ton to Rs 31,000 per ton, while the price of sponge iron vary between Rs 27,000 - Rs 27,500 per ton. Says Amarjit Goyal, CMD, Modern Steels. “Though speculation on a 5 per cent cut in import duty has led to a fall in steel prices today, it will not have a long term effect as the international prices of steel are already very high ($800 - $900 per ton). The secondary steel producers are selling under pressure, by lowering their cost”. Agrees Pradeep Aggarwal, managing director, Shivalik Steels, said: “There has been a decline in demand of steel, leading to the prices being reduced. Moreover, there is no change in price of cold rolled coils and hot rolled coil. The government has to provide for a level playing field to the secondary producers. Thus they should abolish the import duty and lower the excise duty from 14 per cent to 6 per cent, which will in turn lead to a fall in steel prices”. |
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Fiscal Loss
Mumbai, April 1 The total market cap of all the listed companies in the country, however, rose by about Rs 18,00,000 crore during the fiscal, counting close to 100 that got listed during the year. But as many as 1,000 companies, including newly listed firms, recorded a fall in their market capitalisation, while another 1,400 firms managed to add about Rs 15,00,000 crore to their valuations. Those that witnessed a fall in their market cap include the big names of IT sector, such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Service, Wipro, Satyam Computer, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, i-Flex, MphasiS, Patni Computer and Moser Baer. Besides, firms like Tata Motors, Dr Reddy’s, Cipla, Hindustan Zinc, Mahindra and Mahindra, Zee Entertainment, Jet Airways, Parsvnath, Videocon Industries, Financial Technology, United Breweries, Indian Hotels and Container Corporation also shed value. Infosys, TCS and Wipro lost Rs 18,000-42,000 crore, while Satyam, HCL Tech and Patni lost Rs 2,000-4,500 crore. Tata Motors, M&M, Hindustan Zinc, Cipla, Container Corp, Dr Reddy's, Tech Mahindra, i-Flex, Videocon, MTNL, Bharat Forge, Sobha Developers, United Breweries, Amtek Auto, Cadila, Wockhardt, Aventis Pharma, Ansal Properties, Aurobindo Pharma, Mindtree Consulting, Hexaware, Subex and NIIT Tech all lost between Rs 1,000-10,000 crore each. Together these 1,000 firms saw their market value falling to about Rs 7,24,000 crore, from about Rs 9,82,000 crore at the end of fiscal ended March 31, 2007.
— PTI |
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Videocon bids for Motorola’s mobile handset biz
New Delhi, April 1 "Yes, we have sent them an expression of interest to acquire their global mobile handset business. It is in the initial stages and will take time but we are the only one from India to do so," Videocon Group chairman Venugopal Dhoot said. He said the company's move to acquire Motorola's mobile phone business was in line with its expanding interest in the mobile telephony business. "We have already got licenses for offering GSM-based mobile services in all 22 circles in India and we see a synergy," Dhoot added. When contacted, a Motorola India spokesperson declined to confirm the development. According to reports, Motorola's non-profitable handset business has been estimated to be worth about $3.8 billion as evaluated by Merrill Lynch. While Videocon itself is on the prowl, US telecom giant AT&T is eyeing a stake in its subsidiary Datacom, which has been issued a license recently for mobile services throughout India. However, the deal is expected to take shape only after the government allocates spectrum for wireless telecom services to new players, as a mere license may not fetch a good value.
— PTI |
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GAIL to take over PMT gas marketing
New Delhi, April 1 GAIL signed a contract with the consortia of Reliance Industries, BG Group of UK and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)- who are the joint operators of the PMT fields lying in western offshore - for buying the entire 17 million standard cubic meters per day of gas produced from the fields. It also signed contracts for sale of the gas to consumers, including RIL, at the government-approved price of $5.7 per million British thermal unit. “We have this morning signed contracts to takeover marketing of the gas from this fiscal,” GAIL director (marketing) B.C Tripathi said here. GAIL, which was the official marketing agency of the PMT gas till 2005 when the petroleum ministry gave the rights to the field operators for an interim period, also contracted RIL for sale of 3.6 mmscmd of gas to its petrochemical plants. On instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for a more uniform distribution of the natural resource, the oil ministry had in December 2007 scrapped all contracts for sale of gas produced from PMT fields and nominated GAIL for selling it to ‘fuel-starved’ fertiliser plants outside Gujarat. But after protests, the ministry agreed to partly restore 3.6 mmscmd of gas out of 5.1 mmscmd consumed by RIL’s petrochemical plants and 2.13 mmscmd from BG’s share of 3.05 mmscmd.
— PTI |
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RIL makes second gas discovery in KG basin
New Delhi, April 1 The discovery was made in the block KG-DWN-2003/1, which the company had won in the fifth round of auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy, a company press release said here. Last month, the company had informed the government that its earlier find in the block was assessed to be commercially viable for producing gas. The second discovery has been named Dhirubhai-41 and has been notified to the government and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. In February, Reliance had made first gas discovery in the same block and named it Dhirubhai-39.
— PTI |
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Bharti Airtel tests 3G services
New Delhi, April 1 “We have tested 3G applications at three places - Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore - on a trial indoor spectrum given to us," Bharti Airtel president (mobility) Sanjay Kapoor said. The DoT has already announced to allot 3G spectrum through auction and the existing players like Airtel are gearing to start 3G service which enables subscribers much faster downloading facility and also wireless broadband. Asked whether Bharti Airtel has the technology to offer 3G mobile services, Kapoor said: “We have 3G services in Seychelles. Our license for Sri Lanka is for 3G services as well and by the time 3G services are launched in India we will have enough experience. Moreover, we have SingTel as our partner, which has wide experience of offering 3G services," he said. Asked how long the company would take to offer services once the spectrum was alloted, he said: “We will take 6-9 months from the date of allotment of spectrum. But we are still waiting for the final guidelines to be announced by the DoT.”
— PTI |
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Japanese Co to set up tyre-making unit in Haryana
Chandigarh, April 1 Rajeev Arora, MD, HSIIDC, said Japanese investment in Haryana, which was hitherto Gurgaon and Faridabad centric, was now fanning out towards other regions of the state. The investment being made by Yokohama Rubber Company was the first major Japanese enterprise in the Rohtak-Jhajjar belt, he said. The cost of this 100 per cent FDI project is estimated at Rs 965 crore. It is proposed to be financed entirely through the capital and internal accruals of the parent company. |
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Gold, silver nosedive
Mumbai, April 1 The dollar bounced back against major currencies and oil prices were also quoted below $102 per barrel, following which precious metals declined heavily, traders said. Standard gold also resumed low at Rs 11,850 per 10 on heavy selling pressure. Later, standard gold and pure gold slid further and closed at Rs 11,685 and Rs 11,750 per 10 gm respectively.
— UNI |
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Reliance Money brings Canadian partner in broking biz
New Delhi, April 1 “Technical analysis, till date, is a privilege available to institutions and HNIs and the Indian retail investors have been deprived of these tools so far,” Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said here. The addition of Recognia’s sophisticated automated technical analysis as an add-on feature on the platform will provide automated simplified analysis that will inform the customer about shift in trends of different stocks in the markets at one rupee per day, he said. The value-added feature would provide additional revenue stream for the company and it expects about 10-20 per cent of its two million customers to use this facility. Talking about the expansion plan, Bandyopadhyay said by the end of March 2009, the company would add another 10,000 outlets, taking the total number of outlets to 20,000. By doubling the outlets, the company would expand its reach to 5,161 tehsils of the country, he added.
— PTI |
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Aptech announces standalone results
New Delhi , April 1 The standalone audited financial results were taken on record at a board Meeting held in Mumbai. The board noted that since the statutory audit of the financial results of Aptech’s joint venture Company in China is in progress, the consolidated results of the group will be published by April end. |
Dr Reddys Lab Triangle India investment Sahara One tie-up Hyundai Motor sales up Great Offshore shares 6 Wipro subsidiaries merged Emaar MGF Frameboxx expansion plans
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