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Patel asks airlines to slash fares
Satyam acquires infra firms for $1.6 billion
Govt hints at further cut in fuel prices
BSNL loses 12 lakh connections in 6 months
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ArcelorMittal fined Rs 2,000 cr
States demand additional Rs 20,000-cr aid
Package for tourism industry under study
Slowdown affecting trade, industry: Nath
Learn from failures, Premji tells entrepreneurs
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Patel asks airlines to slash fares
New Delhi, December 16 While prices of aviation fuel were cut by another 11 per cent yesterday, seventh straight cut in recent times, the only response that has come from the airlines has been a meagre cut of Rs 400 in air fares in the form of lower fuel surcharge. The government has supported the aviation industry when ATF prices were high, Patel said, adding that it was also imperative on the part of airlines to respond now that ATF rates had been brought down by reducing fares. The minister said airlines must reciprocate the government's gesture to help the aviation industry when it had been passing through some serious turbulent air. "We supported the industry when they were in difficulty. We gave them extended credit, staggered repayment of their dues and abolished customs duty on ATF," Patel added. State-run oil companies yesterday slashed jet fuel prices by over 11 per cent. ATF in Delhi was cut by Rs 4,208.37 to Rs 32,691.28 per kilolitre. This is the seventh straight cut in jet fuel prices since prices soared to an all-time high of Rs 71,028.26 per kl in Delhi in August. Meanwhile, the centre has also asked state governments to lower local tax on ATF to reduce operating costs of airlines. Replying to supplementaries during question hour in Rajya Sabha, Patel said sales tax varies from 4 per cent to 32 per cent that has a cascading affect on fuel price. The minister defended the government's move to ask public sector oil companies to give grace time to private airlines Jet Airways and Kingfisher to clear fuel bills and repay amounts defaulted in instalments.
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Satyam acquires infra firms for $1.6 billion
Hyderabad, December 16 The Board of Directors has approved the proposal to acquire 100 per cent stake in Maytas Properties for $1.3 billion and 51 per cent in Maytas Infra for $0.3 billion, Satyam said. "The two acquisitions pave the way for accelerated growth in additional geographies and market segments such as transportation, energy and several infrastructure sectors for the core IT business," Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju said. The two properties are promoted by Raju's son Teja Raju and Mytas Infra is listed on domestic bourses. "The deal would de risk the core business by boot-strapping a new business vertical in infrastructure," he said, adding that this market segment can mitigate risks attributed to developed markets and traditional verticals that are likely to be impacted by the recessionary trends in the economy. The acquisition of Maytas Properties would be immediate while in case of Maytas Infra, Satyam would acquire 31 per cent from the promoters and make an open offer for additional 20 per cent from the public as the company is a listed entity. The price proposed to be paid to promoters is Rs 475 per share, while the price for the open offer has been approved to be Rs 525 per share and is subject to change in line with SEBI regulations. Maytas Infra, engaged in the business of infrastructure, construction and asset development, while Maytas Properties is a scale player in development of urban space infrastructure. — PTI |
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Govt hints at further cut in fuel prices
New Delhi, December 16 The government had trimmed prices on December 8 after crude tumbled from its July peak of over $147 a barrel. “We will watch (crude oil) prices (to see) if further reduction is possible,” Chidambaram said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha. Chidambaram, who was formerly finance minister, was answering a question on behalf of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who now holds the finance portfolio. Oil minister Murli Deora said public sector oil marketing companies IOC, BPCL, HPCL have declared combined losses of Rs 14,431 crore during the first six months of 2008-09. Their total revenue loss on the sale of petroleum products is projected to be Rs 110,381 crore during 2008-09. The combined borrowings of the three firms at the end of November 2008 stood at Rs 1,15,000 crore with an interest burden of Rs 8,100 crore during 2008-09, he said. |
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BSNL loses 12 lakh connections in 6 months
New Delhi, December 16 A major concern has been raised in the official circles as a result of the decline in landline connections being faced by both the state-run telecom companies, BSNL and MTNL. However, the problem is acute in the rural sector, where the BSNL operates and not so much in the urban sector, where MTNL has its presence. According to statistics, BSNL has lost over 1.2 million landline customers in its major circles in the six-month period between April and September 2008. The maximum decline in the landline connections has been in states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Incidentally, the government is in the know of trend and has also expressed concern over decline, which is also reflective in its quarterly revenue. The government has also asked BSNL to take steps to check the fall in revenues. The MTNL, on the other hand, is on a better footing than BSNL. While it lost over 44,500 and 57,500 customers in Delhi and Mumbai, respectively, it has also added over 60,000 and 68,000 landline connections in the two cities, respectively, over the same period between April and September. BSNL officials agree that there has been a negative growth in their landline connections, which is also clearly reflective in its revenue. The officials also point out various reasons for this negative growth, which include surrender and disconnection due to non-payment of dues and preference to mobile phones, which are also proving to be handy for the rural customers. The officials also agree that they are losing out heavily to the private operators, who have been offering better connectivity and service. However, they pointed out that all efforts were being made to stem this decline. The main effort is to promote the landlines through its broadband network and by introduction of value-added services like VOIP, IPTV and games on demand. It is also introducing tariff which would be attractive to the customers. BSNL’s revenue dipped around 23 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal over the immediately preceding quarter. Department of Telecom (DoT) officials feel that this decline in BSNL’s revenue is alarming and will "also affect the budgetary estimates of DoT for licence fee for the current year. This is also reflective in its payment of quarterly licence fee to the government. |
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ArcelorMittal fined Rs 2,000 cr
London, December 16 "The Conseil de la Concurrence (the French Competition Authority) has imposed a 301.78 million euro fine on French subsidiaries of ArcelorMittal active in steel distribution (in France)," the L N Mittal-led company said in a statement here. Three of the ArcelorMittal's group firms — PUM Service Acier, Arcelor Profil, AMD Sud Ouest —which operate in the region were fined 288 million euro, 12.95 million euro and 8,30,000 euro, respectively. ArcelorMittal's subsidiaries were among the 11 companies fined for forming a cartel to influence price, customers and markets in the region, the French Competition Council said on its website. The total fine slapped on the firms stood at 575 million euro.— PTI |
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States demand additional Rs 20,000-cr aid
New Delhi, December 16 “We are soon going to meet Prime Minister, who is also the finance minister, and ask for an additional assistance of Rs 20,000 crore from the centre to boost infrastructure and social sectors, besides more freedom to borrow from the market,” he said. Dasgupta also reiterated his demand that the centre should bear half the burden of states towards implementation of the revised pay scales on the pattern of the Sixth Pay Commission. Pointing out that the revenue of the states from VAT fell 19.9 per cent in November, he said, states would need additional resources to step up funding in basic infrastructure like irrigation and social sectors. Most states would face severe crunch on account of petrol and diesel price reduction by centre in coming days as sales tax is the biggest contributor to states collection. Replying to questions on jet fuel, he said the VAT panel was opposed to the idea of bringing aviation turbine fuel (ATF) in the category of declared goods by the centre. The states cannot impose more than four per cent tax on an item once it is categorised as declared goods. |
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Package for tourism industry under study
New Delhi, December 16 In fact, the two factors — global financial meltdown and the 26/11 terror attack — have also spelt bad news for the tourism industry with foreign tourist arrivals dropping by 2.1 per cent and foreign exchange earnings by 12.5 per cent. All this at the time when it is peak tourist season in the country. On Monday, a concerned tourism ministry held consultations with various stakeholders. The National Tourism Advisory Council (NTAC) and stakeholders held an emergency meeting under tourism minister Ambika Soni. The meeting with representatives of the travel and hospitality industry was convened to discuss industry problems as a fallout of terrorist attacks in Mumbai as well as issues affecting the industry due to the ongoing financial meltdown. More than 60 top representatives from hospitality, travel and tour, centre and state governments officials attended the brain-storming session. After the meeting, Soni said it had been decided that the tourism industry would declare 2009 as Visit India Year. Besides this, with the help of the foreign ministry, advisories being issued by different foreign missions on prevailing situation in India were also being toned down. “The concept is that those who visit India in 2009 would thereafter experience India’s rural tourism, eco tourism, adventure tourism, wellness tourism in specially worked out packages in 2010 and 2011. Details will be worked out by the ministry of tourism in partnership with the stakeholders,” she said. The ministry is considering several sops for the hospitality and travel industry. These include offering free air travel and accommodation to foreign tourists who visit India for the third time. Another proposal is footing the bill for travel and accommodation of tour operators promoting domestic travel and medical tourism. Soni has also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to look at certain fiscal incentives that the industry has been demanding for some time now. Rationalisation of luxury tax and road tax are two issues that travel agents have been pressing for. Industry representatives also urged for fiscal support, tax relaxations and infrastructure industry status for tourism, better connectivity and improved upkeep of national monuments. |
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Slowdown affecting trade, industry: Nath
New Delhi, December 16 The minister, in a reply during question hour, said no exhaustive survey has been conducted by the government regarding the impact of global slowdown on domestic industry, particularly regarding job losses. In a sample survey conducted for the period August to October 2008 by the trade department, there was a job loss of around 65,500 workers, direct and indirectly employed, in 121 export-related companies. In addition to this, the minister said during the current financial year, the rupee has depreciated against US dollar by around 22 per cent. The government and the RBI are closely monitoring both the domestic and international economic developments. Some of the steps recently taken by government to tackle the problems include additional plan expenditure of up to Rs 20,000 crore, a four per cent across the board excise duty cut for all products except petroleum. The India Infrastructure Finance Corporation (IIFCL) was authorised to raise Rs 10,000 crore tax-free bonds for refinancing eligible infrastructure projects and PSU banks to announce packages for home loans. Interest subvention of two per cent has been provided to the labour-intensive sectors for exports, which include handlooms, handicrafts, leather, gems and jewellery, marine products and SMEs. An additional fund of Rs 350 crore has been provided for export incentive schemes. All handicraft items included in Vishesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana were being given back-up guarantee to ECGC for up to Rs 350 crore. |
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Learn from failures, Premji tells entrepreneurs
Bangalore, December 16 While most of the speakers at the conference fiddled with their laptops as they spoke, Premji talked with the help of notes he had scribbled on a paper. Sharing his experience with the audience, Premji said entrepreneurs were not driven by the thought of making money. A true entrepreneur would like to see his ideas succeed and it was this passion that gave him the motivation to pursue his goal, he said. The Wipro founder, who took over the family’s vegetable products business at the age of 21 in 1961 and successfully diversified it, said entrepreneurs should run their enterprises transparently to earn the respect of their employees and clients. C.K. Prahalad, professor at the Ross School of Business, Michigan University, who was the next speaker, spoke on the topic of democratisation of entrepreneurship. He cited products such as mobile phones and how these products had been able to make inroads into the downtrodden sections of Indians. The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a not-for-profit organisation focused on promoting entrepreneurship, is organising the three-day summit that began here today. The key theme of the meet is inclusive entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in a global environment. |
Excise, customs revenue collection down in Nov Birla Tyres closes down Balasore plant UCO Bank to cut interest rates SBI to raise Rs 18,000 cr Oil steady at $44 in Asia L&T bags Rs 1,372-cr orders
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