New Delhi, December 5
Hard pressed to meet additional expenditure, the government today said it will borrow another Rs 45,000 crore through bonds in the remaining part of this fiscal.

"In view of the additional expenditure following the approval of the first Supplementary Demand for Grants by the Parliament, it has been considered necessary by the Government of India to raise additional resources," an official release said.

Therefore the government, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, has decided to issue marketable dated securities during December-February period of the current fiscal.

During December, the government is set to borrow Rs 10,000 crore from two bond auctions of different tenor.

As per the indicative calendar, the bonds would be raised in between December 5-12.

Of the total sum, majority would be raised next month. The government intends to raise Rs 20,000 crore between January 2-20.

During February, bonds worth Rs 15,000 crore would be issued to meet the additional expenditure.

All the scheduled auctions will have the facility of non-competitive bidding scheme under which 5 per cent of the notified amount will be reserved for specified retail investors, the release said.

Variable rate bonds may be issued depending upon the market conditions, it added.

As per the Budget estimates, the gross borrowing plan of the government is pegged at Rs 1,45,000 crore for 2008-09. — PTI 

London, December 5
Oil prices fell to $42.01 a barrel in trading here today, the lowest level since January 2005, and were expected to slide further in the days ahead as energy demand wanes, analysts said.

Later on London's InterContinental Exchange (ICE), Brent recovered to stand at $42.96, up 68 cents from yesterday's close.

Light sweet crude for January climbed 70 cents to $44.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

It is "way, way premature" to think that the market has hit bottom, said David Moore, a commodities strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

"The focus is well and truly on the weakness in consumption, and that doesn't seem likely to go away in the next 24 hours." Moore said today's US employment report could re-emphasise the focus on bad economic news and resultant lower demand for energy.

The key November non-farm payrolls and unemployment report is expected to show the loss of 3,25,000 jobs in the United States, the world's largest economy and biggest energy consumer.

Oil prices have fallen by more than two-thirds since reaching record high points above $147 in July, pulled down by a widening global economic slowdown that weighs on demand. — AFP

New Delhi, December 5
Welcoming the government's decision to reduce prices of petroleum products, India Inc today said there is scope for further cuts as crude oil prices in the international market have dropped from about $147 to less than $43.

While chambers like Ficci and the CII said the fuel price cut would further ease inflationary pressure, Assocham said it was expecting a cut of Rs 10 per litre on petrol.

The government today reduced petrol prices by Rs 5 and diesel prices by Rs 2 per litre.

"It is a very timely move because this will further control inflationary pressure and benefit all sections of society," Ficci Secretary General Amit Mitra said.

For the fourth consecutive week inflation fell, and it was 8.40 per cent for the week ended November 22.

"This (price cut) must have been done to drive up sentiment and also bring down inflation further," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.

"The decision was expected. Since the prices have come down from around $150 per barrel to less than $50, people were expecting a reduction of Rs 10 in petrol per litre and at least Rs 3.5 in diesel per litre," Assocham secretary-general D S Rawat said.

"I am sure the government shall be reviewing the fuel prices from time to time and if the crude prices continue to hover in the range of $50 per barrel, the government will further reduce prices," he added.

The price of the Indian basket of crude oil, at which the country imports, slipped to $41.53 a barrel on December 4 from a peak of $142.04 on July 3.

The government in June increased the price of petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 3 per litre and cooking gas by Rs 50 per cylinder to help the oil-marketing companies tide over losses. — PTI 

New Delhi, December 5
Following Air India’s suit, Jet Airways and JetLite have also slashed fares with effect from tomorrow. Jet cut surcharge, which makes up to half the cost of an air ticket in some cases, by Rs 400 and JetLite by Rs 300 for short-haul routes and by Rs 200 for long flights.

State-owned Air India had cut fares across the board on December 1 by Rs 400 for all routes. The fare cut is part of the reduction in fuel surcharge which was levied by all airlines as a part of rising jet fuel.

Domestic carriers presently charge fuel surcharge of Rs 2,350 per passenger flying up to 750 km and Rs 3,100 for those flying beyond 750 km in India. The airline had in June increased the surcharge by Rs 300 for sectors less than 750 km and Rs 550 for longer flights. Crude oil fell towards $42 a barrel sinking to its lowest level since January 2005 on fears of falling demand.

New Delhi, December 5
Economic slowdown has started showing on the Centre's direct tax collection as the revenue from this count has declined by a hefty 40 per cent year-on- year at Rs 10,346 crore in November 2008.

Attributing the fall to change in the last date of filing of corporate returns this time, finance ministry officials said, "The reduced collections in November this year is due to different dates of filing for corporate returns which was on October 31 last year while it was in September this year."

The direct tax collection in November has come down from Rs 17,189 crore in the same month a year-ago, a fall of 39.81 per cent to be precise. This decline comes after a modest 10.66 per cent growth in October. This is in sharp contrast to the robust 32.5 per cent growth seen in the first six months.

Finance ministry had stated the same reason of advancement of last date for filing of corporate tax returns for the low growth in October as well.

Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman N B Singh had yesterday exuded confidence of meeting the revised target for direct tax mop-up. "It is not an easy target though in view of the global slowdown, but the government is not far behind from achieving it." Bolstered by hefty growth of collection for the first two months of this fiscal, CBDT had earlier this year revised target of direct tax collection from around Rs 3.65 lakh crore to around Rs 3.95 lakh crore for this fiscal.

According to data released today, the government's direct tax collections grew by 22.2 per cent to about Rs 1.77 lakh crore during the first eight months of this fiscal.

The direct tax realisation till November this fiscal stood at Rs 1,77,251 crore up, from Rs 1,45,053 crore during the corresponding period last year. — PTI 

New Delhi, December 5
The country's largest lender, State Bank of India, today said it would consider further cuts in the lending rates following the Reserve Bank's monetary measures, to be unveiled tomorrow.

SBI will definitely consider rate cuts soon after the RBI slashes rates, SBI chairman O.P. Bhatt told PTI.

The RBI is expected to announce monetary measures, including reduction in key policy rates, signalling a soft interest rate regime to fuel growth. — PTI

Washington, December 5
US employers axed payrolls by 5,33,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years and far more than expected, government data on Friday showed, as the year-old recession hammered every corner of the US economy. Oil prices and the dollar weakened and US Treasury bond prices rallied on the news that confirms the recession was now hitting activity across the board.

"You can't get much uglier than this. The economy has just collapsed, and has gone into a free fall," said Richard Yamarone, chief economist at Argus Research in New York.

The Labour Department said the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent last month to the highest reading since 1993, compared with 6.5 percent in October.

"This is a clear employment blowout. Firms are reacting as dramatically as they can to make sure they have cost structures they can survive the recession we are in," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, PA.

November's job losses were the steepest since December 1974, when 6,02,000 jobs were shed, and were much worse than forecast by analysts polled by Reuters who had predicted a reduction of 340,000 jobs.

In addition, job losses in recent months turned out to be worse than previously reported. October's loss was revised to show a cut of 320,000, originally given as a 240,000 loss, while September's drop was revised to 403,000 from 284,000.— Reuters

Solan, December 5
With market slump causing meltdown in the economy, industrial units in this district, too, are facing the impact, with at least two units seeking permission to either retrench their employees or close their operations.

Parwanoo-based Gabriel India Limited has moved an application to retrench at least 150 workers from its plant. As per their application, moved in the office of labour commissioner on November 29, they had sought permission to lay off these workers from December 25. But, since any such move requires a minimum period of 60 days for the Department of Labour and Employment to first inquire and then decide on the case, their application was rejected, informed the joint labour commissioner S.C. Awasthi.

The unit, it is learnt, had sold off more than 50 per cent of their share to a foreign player Federal Mogul, which, too, was now manufacturing engine bearings.

Established in 1978, it is the oldest unit of Parwanoo occupying an area of 78,000 sq feet. The unit, was, however, going through some rough weather and the workers remained on strike for nearly one-and-a-half month. The unit had pleaded that though it was looking forward to introducing some new scheme, but since it had not materialised, it could not cope up with the worker strength and hence it sought permission to lay off 150 of the about 250 employees.

Another watch-manufacturing unit in the Kasauli tehsil had also sought permission to close its operations following market recession. Though the department had failed to find its reasons justified, the unit was finding it difficult to cope up with its staff strength of 350.

Earlier, an inverter-manufacturing unit Su-Kam, based at Baddi, had closed its operations for a period of 15 days in November, when it failed to procure supply orders. The unit resumed its production later after fresh orders started arriving. 

BRIEFLY

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IndianOil LPG pipeline
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Reliance Retail foray
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