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Fuel Price Hike
Taming Fake Currency
Big steel producers resort to bargaining
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Obama’s call not to hit IT industry: Nasscom
Car sales skid, bikes in top gear
Idea asked to return licence of Punjab or K’taka
LSE board to meet on Aug 14
Hyundai plans design institute in Haryana
SBI ups benchmark lending rate by 1 pc
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Fuel Price Hike
New Delhi, August 11 “It will be totally disastrous to even think of increasing the oil prices. As the general election nears, the government is burdened with high inflation and instead there could be a rethink of rolling back the domestic prices if crude continues to cool down at this rate,” clarified the source on the prospects of the report. Another blow to the report was dealt by the Prime Minister’s Office. The oil ministry, including the new oil secretary, wanted the report to be put on the department’s website so that there could be suggestions and debate over the issue. The oil ministry officials say that the PMO has struck down the idea and has expressed in no uncertain terms that the report be studied only. The Committee, headed by Planning Commission member B.K. Chaturvedi, had been asked by the Prime Minister to look into the financial position of the oil marketing companies (OMCs), the overall working of the petroleum sector and related issues of pricing and subsidy. The Committee has recommended the Prime Minister to raise petrol prices by Rs 2.50 per litre per month till March 2009 and diesel prices by 75 paise per litre till 2010 to eliminate subsidies on the two fuels. It has also suggested restricting LPG cylinders sold at subsidised rates to six per connection in a year and phasing out the entire subsidy component over a three-year period. Taking a note of the use of highly subsidised diesel by the elite class through use of expensive cars, the Committee has also suggested levying a “Metro Extra” tax of Rs 2 per litre on diesel in four instalments across 11 metro cities in the country. The 11 cities, where the Metro Extra tax has been suggested, are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Pune, Surat and Agra. It also suggested temporary reduction in excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 a litre from Rs 13.75. While suggesting a Special Oil Tax on crude produced from fields awarded prior to the advent of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) in 1999, the panel has strongly disfavoured any Super Profit or Windfall Profit Tax on private refiners. The Committee favoured stripping ONGC of any gains above $75 a barrel, while private companies like Cairn India Ltd would be taxed at 40 per cent for gains over this benchmark rate. The expected collections from such a tax would total Rs 59,890 crore, which will comprise Rs 55,627 crore from 32.66 million tonnes of oil from ONGC and Oil India Ltd and Rs 4,264 from other crude oil producers in 2008-09. While the Special Oil Tax would replace discounts from upstream firms, the price increase would eliminate oil bonds. The under-recovery, it said, will come down to about Rs 125,000 crore after a year of the recommendations being implemented. At the end of the second year, this would come down to Rs 63,000 crore, which could be met fully through the combination of Special Oil Tax and budgetary provision for PDS kerosene and domestic LPG. |
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Taming Fake Currency
Chandigarh, August 11 Sources in the apex regulatory bank informed TNS that they have recommended the state governments to set up these committees under the chairmanship of the district police chiefs or the district collectors, with representation from the army, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and banks. "These committees will monitor the market, and any surge in counterfeit currency will be reported to the state-level committee on fake notes. These committees will also analyse the origin of forged notes — whether these are being made within the country or smuggled from across the border," said the officer. Sources in RBI say that though the counterfeit notes of 100, 500 and 1,000 denomination are in circulation, the maximum counterfeit notes are of Rs 100 denomination. The fake notes of lower denomination (Rs 10, 20 and 50) are negligible. "In order to ensure that these fake notes are not put into circulation through the banks, we have ensured that all 360 currency chests in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, have note-sorting machines to detect these notes," said the official. This comes in the wake of large-scale counterfeit currency being detected in a branch of SBI and in ICICI Bank in Uttar Pradesh. It is believed that the fake currency was smuggled from across the state's border with Nepal. The RBI has recommended that at least four such committees be set up in Punjab, at Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur, and in Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. Earlier this year, RBI had initiated the setting up of the state-level committees on fake notes, which are headed by the state director general of police (DGP). The state ADGP Intelligence, IG Crime and an official of the IB are members of this committee, which keeps tabs on the fake currency in circulation. While the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, and Union Territory of Chandigarh have already formed these committees, Haryana is in the process of doing so. The apex bank is now proposing that these state-level committees also draw representation from the Excise and Customs Department. |
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Big steel producers resort to bargaining
Ludhiana, August 11 Manufacturers in the region say that the local offices of large steel companies are quoting higher rates for billet, which is a major raw material for rolling mills, forging industry and sheet manufacturers. "Industrialists were surprised when Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) quoted Rs 6,000-7,000 per metric tonne higher than the prevailing rate today. When the buyers refused to pay that kind of price, they began bargaining. Many large-scale manufacturers managed to get billet but for small producers it is not possible to pay such a high rate," said S.C. Ralhan, president of Hand Tool Manufacturers Association. Industrialists said such a move would only encourage unfair practices in the market. Steel consuming industry here was expecting stability in prices. However, the latest "tactic" has added to the worries of manufacturers. Alleging that large producers were trying to sell billet at higher rates while projecting that there had been no hike in prices, manufacturers said the practice should be stopped immediately. "Large traders can buy at higher rates, which would mean that small units are hit hard," industrialists said. In Mandi Gobindgarh, ingot prices have reduced in the past few weeks. Ingot is available for around Rs 37,000 per metric tonne from the previous rate of around Rs 42,000 per metric tonne that prevailed a couple of weeks ago. |
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Obama’s call not to hit IT industry: Nasscom
Bangalore, August 11 Mittal, who was interviewed today on the sidelines of Nasscom’s second annual product summit here, said, “Obama is primarily talking about job losses in the US and that has more to do with the manufacturing sector”. “Children here in Missouri aren't just growing up competing for good jobs with children in California or Indiana, but with children in China and India as well,” Obama was quoted to have said at a campaign rally in Springfield, Missouri. “This is an emotive issue that has come up during the run up to the US presidential elections. But I do not think the IT sector in India has anything to worry from these statements”, Mittal said. Earlier, Mittal, along with Subhash Menon, chairman of the Nasscom’s product initiative committee, released the findings of the study commissioned by them on software product development in India. Talking about the findings of the study, Pari Natarajan, CEO of Zinnov, the organisation that prepared the report, said while the Indian software industry had been an export-driven story with 68 per cent of the revenue coming from export, home-grown software product business was slated to get increased acceptance in the domestic market and revenue share from domestic sales would increase. |
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Car sales skid, bikes in top gear
New Delhi, August 11 According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), which released the figures today, July sales posted a 1.71 per cent decline as compared to the same month last year. However, the two-wheeler sector managed to clock a positive 19.47 per cent growth. "This is the first time since November 2005 that the passenger vehicle segment registered a decline. Overall inflation and RBI measures to contain it, oil prices hike and mainly cost of finance and its availability have impacted the growth in this segment," SIAM director-general Dilip Chenoy told reporters here. The passenger car segment clocked sales of 87,724 units during the month, against 89,250 units in the same month a year ago, SIAM said. Total domestic vehicles sales stood at 7,78,907 units compared to 6,81,771 units in the same month last year. As per the figures, country’s largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India's sales grew 1.45 per cent to 45,757 units in July against 45,101 units in the same month in 2007. Hyundai Motors sales were also not encouraging with 15,061 units being sold during July compared to 14,981 units in the same period last year. Tata Motors, however, recorded a decline of 8.87 per cent at 12,012 units against 13,181 units in the same month previous year. On the other hand, General Motors India had a 48.7 per cent jump in its sales at 4,415 units compared to 2,969 units last year. Chenoy was hopeful that the present situation was temporary and the coming festive season and new launches would help the industry in maintaining a double-digit growth. Total two-wheeler sales in the month rose by 19.47 per cent at 5,99,369 units against 5,01,691 units in the same month last year, SIAM said. On the motorcycles front, sales jumped by 21.91 per cent at 4,57,178 units against 3,75,004 units during the year-ago month. There was a big jump in the sales of market leader Hero Honda, which has also introduced new models lately. It sold 2,60,324 units in July against 1,86,848 units in the same period, 2007, up 39.32 per cent. Bajaj Auto, however, posted a decline of 2.46 per cent at 1,13,440 units compared to 1,16,305 units last year. In comparision, TVS Motor's sales jumped by 11.95 per cent to 39,448 units against 35,237 units in the same month last year. |
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Idea asked to return licence of Punjab or K’taka
New Delhi, August 11 Department of Telecom secretary Siddharth Behura said the company would not get any official "response" on the merger proposal till one of the two licences was returned. Idea Cellular, the fastest-growing of the country’s five biggest mobile-phone carriers, had earlier in the year offered Rs 32.4 billion ($757 million) for control of Spice Communications. Idea, controlled by Kumar Mangalam Birla, agreed to buy a 41 per cent stake from MCorpGlobal Communications for Rs 77.30 a share and will make an open offer for a further 20 per cent at the same price. Idea this year has been adding customers faster than larger rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Group Plc's Indian unit, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The combined entity will have about 30 million subscribers in the market of 269 million users, according to the regulator. Meanwhile, Behura said the government would finalise the process of auctioning next generation 3G mobile spectrum by September 30. Ahead of the 3G spectrum allocation process, the government would invite request for proposals for rolling out mobile number portability (MNP). "In a week's time, preliminary procedure for MNP seeking RFP from vendors will be out," Behura said. The government had recently announced the guidelines for 3G spectrum and MNP, and had allowed foreign players to take part in the next generation telecom space. |
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LSE board to meet on Aug 14
Ludhiana, August 11 Members of the LSE have been at loggerheads and two separate sections were formed, each trying to oust the other. A group of members of the bourse moved a notice on July 10 under Section 284 of the Companies Act seeking ousting of the chairman S.P. Sharma and T.S. Thapar, one of the directors. The matter was heard by CLB chairman Subramaniam today. The chairman of the LSE contended that he had sought a legal opinion on the meeting of August 23 and never gave his consensus regarding it. |
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Hyundai plans design institute in Haryana
Chandigarh, August 11 The managing director of Hyundai Motor India Ltd., H.S.Lheem, called on Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today and urged him that a piece of land be allotted to Hyundai Motor at a prime location in the state to set up its corporate office and a design institute. The design institute would be a kind of research and development centre. Lheem also offered to help in imparting training to the students of industrial training institutes so as to improve their skill. The Chief Minister assured all support of the government to Hyundai Motor in setting up of its corporate office and design institute in Haryana. |
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SBI ups benchmark lending rate by 1 pc
Mumbai, August 11 "Benchmark prime lending rate is revised from 12.75 per cent to 13.75 per cent," the bank said in its filing on
BSE. The decision by the largest lender was expected but came days after a host of other lenders, including
HDFC, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Bank of India, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Yes Bank announced revisions in interest rates.
— PTI |
Gujarat NRE Coke plan ArcelorMittal buyout ONGC contract Godawari Power A.M. Sawhney Honda Civic sport edition
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