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Inflation up at 7.33 pc despite curbs
IPI Pipeline
3G Services
MFs allowed to float realty schemes
Hindujas to invest $10 b in power biz
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Govt to ensure farmers’ loan waiver by June 30
Four textile parks for Punjab okayed
RPower record date for bonus
Crisil lowers GDP growth to 8.1 pc
Pak to reinvestigate Karachi Stock Exchange scam
Corporate Results
Andhra Bank net at Rs 124 cr
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Inflation up at 7.33 pc despite curbs
New Delhi, April 25 Finance minister P.Chidambaram said the measures initiated to control prices would take time to show results and promised more steps to check the price rise. Replying to questions in Lok Sabha, he said some traders were opposing searches and other action against them and they enjoyed indirect support of some political parties. Financial, monetary and administrative measures have been initiated to check inflation and all possible steps will be taken in future, too, in this direction, he said while replying to questions on price rise. Administrative measures are being taken and will be taken, Chidambaram said as members wanted to know what was being done to curb the price rise. “Inflation will moderate over a period of time... We will take all possible steps. But we have to be patient,” he said. On the other hand, economy watchers say the government in the past two weeks has been making some efforts most of which are in the information space instead of doing anything concrete and taking firm ground steps. There have been food grain estimate release which is satisfactory, there have been much publicised meetings between various government departments and estimates of good rains even before the summer has started have been released, say economists. What has not been done is any actual corrective announcement like PDS scheme correction, or taking stock of steel and cement situation or taking into account the actual trading in foodgrain and seeing whether there is any anomaly that could contribute to price rise. Only cosmetic changes have been carried out to show that there is a problem that it is trying to fix that too in broad media glare, they add. The annual rate of inflation, which dipped from a 40-month high of 7.41 per cent to 7.14 for week ended April 5, again rose despite a host of measures announced by the government to control prices. Inflation for the corresponding period last year was at 6.34 per cent.
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IPI Pipeline
New Delhi, April 25 Reports from Pakistan said contentious issues were resolved. However, the agreement will be signed after the officials get final approval from their governments. “We have reached agreement on principles on which, we hope, the project can go ahead,” India’s oil minister Murli Deora told reporters in Islamabad after conferring with his Pakistani counterpart Khwaja Asif. The whole process would not take more than ‘a few days or few weeks’, the Pakistani minister stated. The $7-billion gas pipeline project from Iran is expected to meet the fast-growing energy needs. Deora had earlier admitted that there were differences over the transit fees to be charged by Pakistan for Iranian gas to be transported through its territory to India. He was hopeful that these would be addressed during the meeting and the project would be implemented according to the established international practices. Meanwhile, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan yesterday signed a framework agreement to buy natural gas from Turkmenistan, despite the cost of laying a pipeline from the Central Asian state having increased to $7.6 billion from the earlier estimate of $3.3 billion. Asian development Bank’s country director Peter Fedon said the bank had facilitated the signing of the TAPI agreement. However, he evaded answering a question about possible assistance for the IPI project. The parties agreed that a technical working group would prepare a draft of the gas sales and purchase agreement by December 31. The next meeting of the group will be held in New Delhi in October. On the IPI pipeline, the two ministers said they were fully committed to the peace pipeline, which is a 2,775-km pipeline project, to deliver natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and India. The project is expected to take three to five years to complete and was estimated in 2006 to cost $7 billion. The project is expected to benefit both India and Pakistan, which do not have sufficient natural gas to meet their rapidly increasing domestic demand. India is predicted to require 400 million cubic meters of gas per day by 2025, up from 90 million cubic meters per day in 2005.
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3G Services
New Delhi, April 25 "As the existing licensees have already made huge investments in the infrastructure and their systems are in place, therefore, they will be in a better position to deliver 3G services efficiently at low incremental cost," TRAI said in its views on permitting new entities for 3G Services. With the number of service providers going up to 13-14 in each circle, the regulator said there would be sufficient competition to ensure that the spectrum is priced competitively, discourage cartelisation and offer services that are acceptable in terms of quality and price. DoT, in its letter earlier this month, had asked TRAI to also include other prospective operators with foreign partners who fulfill the conditions for getting Unified Access Service (UAS) licenses. "The Authority firmly believes that in the interest of the growth of Indian telecom sector, the entry of this kind must be strongly discouraged," TRAI said. Earlier during the day, telecom minister A Raja had said that DoT would issue new guidelines for 3G mobile services and allocation of spectrum for the prospective bidders. — PTI No licence fee for FLT: Raja
The government today said the fixed line telephony (FLT) will be exempted from the licence fee to encourage service providers especially in the private sector to go to rural areas. "I have already asked the Telecom Commission to deliberate on the issue to exempt fixed line telephony from licence fee, charged as percentage of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR)," telecom minister A Raja said at a function organised by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). Despite a teledensity of nearly 25 per cent, 70 per cent of the population did not enjoy the fruits of telecom revolution, he said, adding, "I call upon all stakeholders (PSUs and private operators) to come forward and connect all villages." On behalf of the government, "I assure you all help to go to rural areas." State-run BSNL would be the single largest beneficiary of Raja's announcement as the PSU was having nearly 90 per cent of the fixed line telephone connections . Commenting on the decision, Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel told reporters, "I am delighted. Fixed line telephony must become recipient of funds and the operators should not be burdened with a host of levies like licence fee of contribution to the Universal Service Obligation Fund." — PTI
India world’s 2nd largest wireless network
With the total wireless subscriber-base touching 261.09 million in March, India has become the world’s second largest network, overtaking the US.
India now stands behind China, which has about 530 million subscribers. China added 23.9 million subscribers, up to the last quarter of 2007, while India added 25.3 million subscribers during the same period. Comparing their subscriber count to the US’s 252 million subscribers and population of 300 million, both India and China have vast market potential with their one billion-plus population. A total of 10.16 million wireless subscribers have been added in March as against 8.53 million wireless subscribers added in the last month, telecom regulator TRAI said. Altogether 10.4 million telephone connections (wire line and wireless) were added during March as compared to 8.49 million additions during the previous month. The total number of telephone connections reached 300.51 million in March as compared to 290.11 million in February. —
UNI |
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MFs allowed to float realty schemes
Mumbai, April 25 Existing MFs can launch the REMF schemes, provided “they have adequate number of experienced key personnel/directors,” SEBI said in a notification here. REMFs will be required to declare net asset value (NAV) of the schemes daily, it said, adding, “every real estate mutual fund scheme shall be close-ended and its units shall be listed on a recognised stock exchange”. Entities having experience in real estate business of at least five years will also be allowed to sponsor REMFs provided they fulfill other eligibility conditions, the notification said. While welcoming the notification, global real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj country head Anuj Puri said: “It was long awaited...the move will provide proper exit to the real estate fund and will bring in the necessary capital for developers”. He said developers would be able to sell their properties to one mutual fund instead of looking for several buyers. “It will result in better management of property,” he added. — PTI
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Hindujas to invest $10 b in power biz
New Delhi, April 25 The group, run by London-based Hinduja family, will create a power generation capacity of 10,000 MW over the next 10 years, for which it is negotiating with 7-8 states, its global president G P Hinduja told PTI in an interview here. The first of this would be the 2,000 MW Vizag project in Andhra Pradesh, he said. The group's total investment in the country's power sector would work out to be around $10 billion (about Rs 40,000 crore), given the average cost of about $1 billion for creating 1,000 MW capacity, Hinduja said. The group will also consider bidding for upcoming ultra-mega power projects (UMPPs) as and when the government invites bids for the same, he said, adding that any decision in that regard would be taken only after the bids are invited and on a case-to-case basis. While Hinduja did not wish to comment on the current status of the group's Vizag project, it is understood that the application for coal linkage has been recommended by Central Electricity Authority and is awaiting the nod of Coal Linkage Committee. Out of the group's overall 10,000 MW power generation plan, Vizag project is expected to be the first to reach financial closure. Asked whether the group was late in making an entry in the Indian power sector, Hinduja said: "Power sector is just beginning to take off. There is a gap of over 78,000 MW and is increasing every year." — PTI
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Govt to ensure farmers’ loan waiver by June 30 New Delhi, April 25 He told the Lok Sabha that pendency on the matter of framing of guidelines for implementing the loan-waiver scheme for farmers would not affect normal lending to the farming community. The finance minister will meet heads of banks on May 1 and urge them to go on with normal lending while the guidelines for implementation of scheme through banks are formulated in consultation with the RBI and Nabard. The FM said: “If there are any apprehensions that the banks will not lend to farmers, pending the formulation of guidelines, I will impress upon heads of banks to not stop their normal lending operations”. Chidambaram said: “We have received several suggestions with regard to guidelines. The major ones pertained to the inclusion of farmers who had borrowed from moneylenders, scrapping of the land-holding yardstick and changing it on the basis of land productivity. Extention of the scheme to farmers who had paid their loans before March 31, 2007, is another suggestion among those received”. Later during the day, discussions on the Finance Bill began with M.A. Kharabela Swain, BJP MP from Balasore, Orissa, initiating the same, accusing the UPA government of gross under-estimation of the fiscal deficit projection. He also sought tax exemptions for the charitable institutions, which the FM had earlier said were “using their ill-gotten earnings through anonymous donations”. The BJP had the Left’s support on this issue.
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Four textile parks for Punjab okayed
Amritsar, April 25 V.K. Kohli, deputy director, regional office of the textile commissioner, here said the scheme for the textile parks had been extended in the 11th Plan and 10 textile projects would be approved in the first stage. He urged the industrial association and entrepreneurs to form special purpose vehicles for the implementation of the project. Kohli also said four integrated textile parks are under progress in Ludhiana, the textile hub of the state. They include Punjab Apparel Park and Lotus Integrated Textile Park while two projects, namely Ludhiana-Barnala Integrated Park and Ludhiana Dyeing and Processing Park, are in the pipeline. The deputy director said the scheme would target industrial clusters with high growth potential, which required strategic intervention by providing world-class infrastructure support. The government provides 40 per cent of the project cost by grant or equity subject to the ceiling of Rs 40 crore. He said the scheme would allow combined equity of stake of the Centre, the state government or industrial development corporation of the state, which should not exceed 49 per cent of the equity. Kohli informed that the enterprising associations must take the initiative in view of the assistance given by the ministry of textiles to bring more parks in the state to change the investment climate with high-tech industry and modern infrastructure.
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RPower record date for bonus
Mumbai, April 25 The company’s books will remain closed between June 3 and 5 for the purpose. The shares of the company will be quoted on cum-bonus basis till May 29 and ex-bonus from May 30, the release said. The company has 41 lakh public shareholders, who will be entitled to the bonus shares. The promoters have been excluded from the bonus entitlement. —
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Crisil lowers GDP growth to 8.1 pc
New Delhi, April 25 The government's advance estimates had put gross domestic product growth at 8.7 per cent for 2007-08, almost 1 per cent less than 9.6 per cent recorded in 2006-07. But this estimate, based on data supplied by Central Statistical Organisation, was still higher than the Reserve Bank of India's forecast of 8.5 per cent GDP growth for 2007-08. Crisil said notwithstanding its forecast of moderate GDP growth in FY09, the overall growth scenario in India is expected to remain strong with investment as the main driver. Domestic private consumption demand will also provide some support to the economy against slowing external demand. The agency lowered forecasts for industry and services growth to 8 per cent and 9.8 per cent, respectively, but expects agriculture to grow at 3 per cent if it is a normal monsoon this year. Explaining lowering of its forecast for India's GDP growth in the current fiscal which began on April 1, Crisil principal economist Dharmakirti Joshi said, ''our earlier GDP forecast of 8.5 per cent had assumed a cut in the policy interest rate by the central bank in response to the slowing economy. This is now ruled out since current inflation and inflationary expectations are way beyond the RBI's comfort zone of 4.5-5 per cent. This, coupled with the recent slowing down of global growth projections, has resulted in us revising our growth projections downwards for 2008-09. — UNI
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Pak to reinvestigate Karachi Stock Exchange scam
The National Assembly today decided to reopen the 2006 Karachi Stock Exchange scam.
The assembly assigned the review probe to a standing committee of the assembly on finance after finance minister Ishaq Dar informed the house during question-hour that shareholders lost Rs 700 billion in the crash. He said the reports of earlier investigations were not made public. Dar said former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and finance adviser Salman Shah would be asked to explain their position before the committee on Karachi Stock Exchange and other financial irregularities. The assembly was informed that the Aziz government sold state-run Pak-Arab Fertilizer Plant for Rs 14 billion. The company earned a profit of Rs 12 billion last year. Several members pointed out that the market value of the plant was over Rs 100 billion but it was sold to a favourite for a paltry sum. |
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Corporate Results
New Delhi, April 25 To further strengthen its market share, the company said it would invest $3.4 billion in Airtel and in passive infrastructure. For the year ended March 31, Airtel’s revenue rose to Rs 27,025 crore, up by 46 per cent from the last fiscal while the net profit stood at Rs 6,701 crore, up by 57 per cent over the previous fiscal. ABB net up ABB Ltd has announced a stand-alone net profit of Rs 117.69 crore for the quarter ended March 31, a 35.85 per cent increase over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The company had a net profit of Rs 86.63 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2007, ABB said. Bharat Electronics Bharat Electronics has said its net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, increased by 41.36 per cent to Rs 504.83 crore as complared to Rs 357.12 crore for the corresponding period last year. The company said its total income for the quarter grew by nearly 31 per cent to Rs 2,345.94 crore as against Rs 1,791.60 crore in the same period a year ago. LIC Housing Finance LIC Housing Finance has announced a net profit of Rs 118.1 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, a 32.49 per cent growth over the corresponding period a year ago. The company had a net profit of Rs 89.14 crore in the fourth quarter of the financial year ended March 31, 2007, the company said. Further, the board of directors has declared a dividend of Rs 10 on every shares of Rs 10 each. HCC profit up Hindustan Construction Company today announced a net profit after tax of Rs 108.77 crore for the year ended March 31, a 37.19 per cent increase over the corresponding period previous year. The company has declared a dividend of Re 0.80 per equity share. — Agencies
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