New Delhi, August 23
The battle over gas is getting murkier. But, what is strange is the plan that Anil Ambani has with the KG Basin gas, for which he is fighting with his brother, Mukesh Ambani. He claims that the gas will be used for setting up a power plant at Dadri, in Uttar Pradesh.

Now, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has other plans. A white paper that is being issued by the UP Government regarding the power situation, says otherwise. In the white paper “Who is responsible for current power crisis in UP”, Mayawati lashed out at her rival, Samajwadi party led by former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, for the current power scarcity in the state.

Mayawati has stated that the rule of SP, BJP and Congress (all in past 60 years), has led to addition of only 4,700 MW of power in the state. The white paper has claimed that the actual demand is around 7,500-8,000 MW in the state.

It may be recalled that Anil Ambani is a former Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) from the Samajwadi party and had been allotted the land to set up power plant at Dadri during Mulayam Singh’s tenure at the helm in UP.

What is strange is the claim made by RNRL in its affidavit in the high court that it is planning to set up an estimated 7,480 MW gas-backed power station in Dadri. It has also mentioned in the affidavit that funds for the project, which is expected to be around Rs 2,440 crore, is being routed through external commercial borrowings (ECB).

The white paper of the state government, which presents its strategy for increasing the generation and availability of power, stated that the Bahujan Samaj Party has initiated the unprecedented task of development of power sector in the past 60 years in the state. Those in the private sector include Bara project (1,980 MW), Karchanna project (1,320 MW) which have been sanctioned and the production of these two projects will get started by the next four years.

The projects that will roll out in the next 2-3 years will be Roja project (600 MW) Anpapra project (1,200 MW), Srinagar project (330 MW). Apart from this, in the long term that is till 2017, the state government expects that production will start from Etah (1,320 MW), Sonbhadra (1,980 MW), Lalitpur (4,000 MW), and the Yamuna Expressway authority (2,000 MW).

What is strange is who are the lenders to RNRL for a project that does not have gas supply agreement in place. The gas supply agreement is necessary for any power project because the lender wants to know the credible source of raw material before bank rolling a project. Here, the gas supplies are in question, besides there are doubts over the allotment of land, which, if existed, would have found mention in the white paper of the state government.

There are doubts also in the state government circles about getting the Dadri land sanctioned. Local farmers are protesting against the use of fertile land at Dadri, located just north-east of Noida, for setting up a power plant and the farmers are likely to hold a protest march, claim state government sources.

Jammu, August 23
Though launched after much fanfare, the 3G mobile services of the state-run BSNL in the Jammu region has virtually no taker as only less than 20 persons have so far availed the service.

The much-hyped 3G services in the state were launched in March this year with an aim to increase the subscriber base of the company which was facing decline in because of poor network connectivity in the state.

The company had to spend crores of rupees to upgrade its infrastructure in Jammu to start the 3G mobile services. However, the subscriber base of the new service has failed to cross the double-digit mark.

As per sources in the BSNL, the total number of the subscribers of the BSNL’s 3G service in the Jammu region is only 14.

“Crores of rupees were spent on raising of the infrastructure for providing the 3G services in the region, but the response so far is not encouraging for us,” a senior officer of the BSNL said while requesting anonymity.

With enhanced network coverage, high-speed Internet access the third generation network, popularly known as the 3G, promised to give much better services to the subscribers but people are not attracted to the services as the changes are quite high.

The services provided by the 3G include wide area wireless, voice telephone, video calls and wireless data, all in a mobile environment.

As compared to 2G network services, 3G service allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates, thus the new network promises to offer users a wide range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.

However, despite giving so much facilities the subscribers in Jammu region do not seem to be impressed with the 3G network and the takers of the service has been a very few people.

“To get the service one needs to purchase a 3G-enabled mobile phone handset which is quite expensive and to avail the service one has to pay heavy monthly rentals,” said Sanjay Sharma techno savvy resident of Jammu.

He further said, “Also we don’t know after availing the service, what type of service the BSNL would provide, already their network is not upto the mark and subscribers are facing problems like call drops and congestion.”

New Delhi, August 23
The Supreme Court has admonished drug major Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd for not raising on the relevant occasion the issue of refunding Rs one crore penalty the government imposed on it for allegedly overcharging drug prices.

A Bench headed by Justice V S Sirpurkar, while hearing the Centre's plea, flayed Ranbaxy for not raising the issue when the matter was decided in May last year in the apex court.

"Why did you keep quiet at the time when the final orders were passed? You failed to raise the issue and now you want refund ... You were sleeping then or you were in coma?" Justice Sirpurkar observed.

However, the Court permitted the company to move an application seeking the refund.

The Ranbaxy counsel sought refund of Rs one crore with interest more than a year after the Supreme Court upheld the firm's position in May 2008.

The Supreme Court in January this year dismissed the review plea filed by the Centre challenging its decision of May 12 last year wherein it had held that exemption from the Drug Prices (Control) Order shall relate to drugs just manufactured in the period of exemption and they need not be sold also during the interval. The Supreme Court Bench in its May 2008 verdict observed that a manufacturer is not in a position to know when a drug will be sold.

"(The firm's) control over the drug would end when it is dispatched to the wholesaler ... The manufacturer cannot supervise or oversee as to how others would be dealing with its product ..." it said.

The Delhi High Court in May 2006 had asked the firm to pay the penalty of Rs one crore and had directed that the money would either be refunded or paid, with interest in each case, depending on the verdict.

The High Court upheld Ranbaxy's position, holding that the words used in the exemption notification are not "manufactured and sold" but only "manufactured". — PTI

London, August 23
World's largest accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is being sued for billions of pounds over its role as an auditor to one of the feeder funds that channelled huge amount of money to Bernard Madoff, the man behind the largest fraud in history, media report says.

"The Canadian arm of PwC has been named in seven separate lawsuits claiming as much as $2 billion in damages for investors who lost almost everything in the largest fraud in history," the Telegraph said in a latest report.

PwC Canada was auditor to Fairfield Sentry, the feeder fund that placed $7.2 billion of investors' money with Madoff and which became the biggest single casualty.

The firm is facing two class action lawsuits, two claims from individual investors and three "derivative actions" launched by investors on behalf of Fairfield Sentry.

PwC Canada has been accused of negligence for failing to spot that Fairfield Sentry's $7.2 billion of assets simply did not exist.

PwC is the second global audit firm to be sued in relation to Madoff. KPMG has been targeted by investors in Tremont Group, which lost $3.3 billion. Sources said that PwC is taking the case very seriously and is anticipating more legal action. — PTI 

Q. I am a Central Government employee having 12 years of service. Please clarify about the following doubt: I have been receiving nearly Rs 10-15,000 per month regularly from my younger brother from the USA from his salary (tax paid) who has been working in an American company. I have obtained permission to accept the amount from him by the departmental authorities. Please clarify whether I have to pay the tax on this amount? Are there any suggestions in this regard? — AK Bhardwaj