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Export duty on steel may be rolled back
Honda Civic’s hybrid version in June
HP to buy EDS for $13.9 b
Singur Project
Falling Re adds to Oil Cos’ woes
Farm Loan Waiver
‘Uttarakhand can be another Switzerland’
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No bid so far to acquire MTN, says Airtel
Payment norms for IPOs eased
SBI in pact for general insurance biz
SJVN gets ‘Mini Ratna’ status
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Export duty on steel may be rolled back
New Delhi, May 13 “The demand of steel producers to roll back the export duty is under consideration and a decision is expected soon,” said steel secretary Raghav Sharan Pandey. The government notified the export duties on May 10 on shipments of products, including hot-rolled coils, to bolster domestic supplies. The levies were first announced by finance minister P Chidambaram on April 29. The notification by the finance ministry was absolutely imperative as in its absence, the duty payable would have been 20 per cent, Pandey said, and pointed out that export duties on certain products had been imposed in pursuance of the Finance Bill. Denying reports that certain steel makers were threatening to roll back their recently made price cuts, the secretary said none of the seven major producers have expressed such an opinion to the ministry. They have suggested that in view of their self-restrain on exports, the government should not impose duties. This was being seriously considered and as part of the process certain information had even sought from the major producers, he added. Secondary steel manufacturers are also meeting the steel secretary tomorrow to discuss issues of exports and rollback of prices in secondary products. Tata Steel yesterday renewed its commitment to freeze prices for up to three months, despite the duty notification. The move by steel makers is expected to soften the prices of steel, which will be reflected in the data in the coming weeks. However, much to the respite of the government, iron and steel prices declined by 0.1 per cent, according to official inflation data released last week. The producers have said that rising input costs was the main reason behind the recent spate of price rise and sought the government's intervention in ensuring assured raw material linkage at mutually-agreed rates. During their meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week, steel producers pledged to lower prices of flat products by Rs 4,000 a tonne and prices of reinforcement bars and structural steel by Rs 2,000 and hold the price line for the next 2-3 months.
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Honda Civic’s hybrid version in June
New Delhi, May 13 Honda has brought in the eighth generation Accord into India, just eight months after its global launch. The car would be available in three variants — Accord 2.4, Accord 2.4 Elegance and Accord 2.4 Inspire, priced at Rs 16.49 lakh, Rs 16.79 lakh and Rs 17.39 lakh, respectively (ex-showroom) in Delhi. The new Accord comes with 80 mm more length and 25 mm more width with eight per cent improvement in fuel efficiency. It also has six airbags. Company officials said hybrid version of the Civic would be imported into India by the middle of next month. The company also plans to introduce its maiden small car here towards the end of next year in an effort to gain a foothold in the most important small car segment. Honda Siel CEO Masahiro Takedagawa told reporters here that the automaker would also review its sales target of 90,000 units in the country for the fiscal 2008-09 in view of the "unpredictable market conditions". "Today’s market conditions are bit unpredictable. We would review our sales target of 90,000 units for 2008-09,"he said. On the company's upcoming plant in Rajasthan, which is being set up with an overall investment of $230 million, he said it would be ready to make certain engine components by September and would begin to roll out cars by the end of 2009.
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HP to buy EDS for $13.9 b
New York, May 13 In this regard, both companies have signed a definitive agreement, under which HP would buy Electronic Data Systems at a price of $25 per share, valuing the company at about $13.9 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2008, HP said.
The deal is expected to more than double HP's services revenue, which amounted to $16.6 billion in fiscal 2007. After the deal, HP plans that EDS would continue to be led by Electronic Data Systems chairman, president and CEO Ronald A Rittenmeyer. He would join HP's executive council and report to Mark Hurd, HP's chairman and CEO, the statement added. The companies' collective services businesses, as on the end of each company's 2007 fiscal year, had annual revenues of more than $38 billion and 2,10,000 employees. The two had operations in more than 80 countries.
— PTI |
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Singur Project
New Delhi, May 13 A bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan while issuing notice to the company, the state government and the West Bengal State Industrial Development Corporation (WBSIDC) posted the matter for further hearing in July. The apex court was hearing a petition filed by Kedar Nath Yadav, a practicing lawyer, who sought immediate halt of Tata Motors' project, although the Calcutta High Court had earlier upheld the land acquisition exercise. West Bengal had last year witnessed violent protests in Singur over acquisition of nearly 1,000 acres of land for setting up a factory to manufacture Nano, the world's cheapest car. The acquisition of fertile multi-crop agricultural land by the government in various parts of the state for Tata Motors' upcoming project, for Indonesia's Salim Group in Haldia and the Reliance group, was violative of farmers' rights guaranteed by the Constitution, Yadav's petition filed through Sarla Chandra stated. It also goes against the provisions of Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the petition said. Tata Motors, which proposes to roll out the world's cheapest car Nano from the Singur facility, submitted before the court that it had invested over Rs 1,000 crore in the project and any delay would increase the cost of the car. The company had earlier requested the apex court not to pass any orders on the petition without hearing it. — PTI
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Falling Re adds to Oil Cos’ woes
New Delhi, May 13 The value of rupee, which stood at Rs 40 a dollar about 10 days ago, has tumbled to 42-level, leading to heavy losses on payment of crude, say oil industry officials. This 5 per cent depreciation of the Indian currency would mean that during this period, if the crude oil worth Rs 1,000 crore was imported, then the loss on account of currency fluctuation would be around Rs 50 crore, added the officials. Adding to woes is the finance ministry’s indication to issue oil bonds only worth 50 per cent of the under recoveries amounting to Rs 35,300 crore to partially offset the Rs 70,000-crore losses, suffered by oil companies during 2007-08 due to rise in global crude prices. The oil companies had demanded bonds for 57.1 per cent of the under-recoveries, but that proposal has been turned down. “The finance ministry is not ready for it, so we have requested the finance minister P Chidambaram to issue as much bond limit as possible”, said petroleum minister Murli Deora after meeting him. On the tricky question of raising the domestic fuel prices, Murli Deora said there was no discussion on it and that it was a policy decision that could be decided only by the cabinet. The petroleum ministry officials said it was not discussed in the meeting whether the bonds would be taken as mandatory requirement for banks to park their funds in government securities, known as statutory liquidity ratio. India imports 73 per cent of its crude oil needs and the cost of imports would spiral as it inches higher, while rupee is trading at a 13-month low.
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Farm Loan Waiver
Chandigarh, May 13 Though the banks have worked out provisional figures for the farm loans disbursed by them, they have so far not received any detailed guidelines from the RBI for its implementation. In spite of several rounds of meetings held between the finance ministry officials and heads of various banks, the modalities for implementation of the scheme, announced in the Union Budget 2008, have not been finalised. Official sources informed TNS that it is doubtful that the debt waiver scheme will be completely rolled out by the June 30 deadline. “Once the modalities are finalised, the banks would take some time to write off the farm loans. However, granting fresh loans to these farmers, who have benefited from the scheme, could take more time,” said a senior official in State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC). Sources in the two SLBCs said a number of commercial banks have not even submitted their data on the farm loans disbursed by them, while a majority of banks have submitted only provisional data. Meanwhile, the figures available from SLBC in Punjab and Haryana show that the total outstanding agriculture loan in the two states is over Rs 34,800 crore. While the total loan availed by farmers in Punjab is around Rs 18,000 crore, farmers in Haryana have availed farm loans worth Rs 16,834 crore. This loan has been availed from various scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks. The total outstanding agriculture loan to small and marginal farmers by banks in Haryana is Rs 4,474.99 crore, while the loan extended to small and marginal farmers in Punjab is Rs 4,900 crore. The extent of rural indebtedness in Punjab is much higher than in Haryana. According to National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), Punjab has the third largest extent of indebtedness in India, with per capita debt of Rs 41,576. Use of loans for non- agriculture activities like marriages and social functions; and, financial exclusion of small and marginal farmers, have contributed to the high level of rural indebtedness in the state. An astounding 34.60 per cent of farmers in the state remain financially excluded and 37 per cent of these financially excluded farmers are small and marginal farmers, who have availed loans from the private moneylenders and commission agents. In Haryana, the extent of rural indebtedness is 53 per cent, with an average outstanding loan of Rs 26,007. While 68 per cent of farmer households in Haryana approach institutional sources for their credit needs, 26 per cent of farmers still approach rural moneylenders.
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‘Uttarakhand can be another Switzerland’
Dehra Dun, May 13 These are the findings of industry body Assocham, which have been tabulated in a vision paper on Uttarakhand named as "Ideal destination for Uttarakhand". After handing over the vision paper to state Chief Minister Maj. Gen (retd) B.C.Khanduri yesterday, Assocham president V.N.Dhoot asserted that Uttarakhand could be another Switzerland provided zonal master plans were prepared on area-based resources. Briefing mediapersons, Dhoot said they had identified around 15 thrust areas and if government pays heed to their recommendations, there is not even an iota of doubt that the state would attract investment worth Rs 50,000 crore in next three years. Disclosing that Uttarakhand still lacks basic infrastructure and amenities, Dhoot, who heads Videocon Industries, told The Tribune, "State government should encourage setting up of special economic zone and agri economic zone. Besides, nearly 18,000 MW of hydropower can be generated in state by identifying sites." A thorough perusal of the vision paper revealed that it has recommended that state has enough sites for adventure tourism like skiing, mountaineering, trekking, water sports etc and hence the government should see that smaller hotels, motels, fast-food centres are set up. "In view of low operational cost offered by state, call centres and BPOs can be set up in places like Mussoorie, Hardwar, Rishikesh, Pantnagar, Almora etc, which can become a key for the GDP growth of the city", is another recommendation by Assocham. Dhoot also said Uttarakhand should be projected as centre for films and advertisement shooting. The state government should aggressively market the sites like Mussoorie, valley of flowers, Dehra Dun, Pindari glacier etc for film producers by providing them tax holidays and infrastructure support for organising shootings.
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No bid so far to acquire MTN, says Airtel
New Delhi, May 13 "Bharti would like to clarify that it has not made any bid, nor is there any requirement to make a bid, as has been incorrectly speculated and reported," the company said in a statement here. The discussions being held are aimed at combining the strengths of the two leading emerging markets' players and accordingly veering towards possible structures to achieve this objective, it said. Bharti's statement comes in the wake of media reports that the Sunil Mittal-promoted company has submitted an indicative bid of over $19 billion and may have to increase the bid value as other companies like Etisalat of UAE may join the race. Although Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator, has denied making any bid, but some of the foreign companies are understood to have evinced interest and are evaluating a possible bid for acquiring MTN. Etisalat spokesperson told PTI that "the company is examining all options and will take a final decision soon on whether to bid or not." Meanwhile, Bharti emphasised that discussions with MTN management were still exploratory in nature and may or may not lead to any transaction. — PTI
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Mumbai, May 13 "The board approved, in-principle, the concept of marking lien on bank account as an alternative mode of payment in public/rights issues," SEBI said after its board meeting here. The new method of payment, it said, will enable the application money to remain in the bank account of the applicant till allotment of the shares. This will eliminate the process of giving refunds by companies to the applicants in case of non-allotment of shares, SEBI said, adding that the modalities would be announced later. At present, applicants have to wait for quite some time to get refunds on non-allotment of shares. SEBI also decided to raise the minimum networth criteria for portfolio managers from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2 crore. — PTI
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SBI in pact for general insurance biz
Mumbai, May 13 State Bank (SBI) proposes to hold a 74 per cent stake in the joint venture with IAG holding the remaining 26 per cent, subject to regulatory approvals, a press release issued here stated. State-owned SBI is India's premier bank while IAG is a well-known international insurance major. Both parties have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the purpose and both would now jointly work towards finalising a shareholders' agreement before approaching the regulatory authorities for their approval. "Establishing a general insurance joint venture is a key element of SBI's strategy to pursue emerging, high-growth opportunities to build on our position as the pre-eminent financial services group in India," SBI deputy managing director Deepak Chawla said.
— PTI |
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SJVN gets ‘Mini Ratna’ status
Shimla, May 13 The corporation has earned the distinction within four years of coming into commercial operations. This status will make it eligible for enhanced delegation of powers, allowing greater functional autonomy. |
BEML in pact with SAIL Lalbhai’s stake in Arvind Mills Pioneer to cut 2,000 jobs GAIL Q4 net up 35 pc Tata Sky user base
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Honda Siel Cars today launched the eighth generation Honda Accord and indicated the importance of the market in India by saying that it would be bringing in its hybrid version of its sedan Civic by the middle of June.
