The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Bharti-MTN deal called off New Delhi, September 30 Telecom giant Bharti Airtel today called off discussions with MTN for the $23-billion merger deal saying the South African government has rejected the proposed structure. This is the second time in just over a year when Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel has been forced to abandon talks for amalgamation of the two organisations in a complex deal that also required the Indian government's clearance for dual listing. “The structure needed an approval from the government of South Africa, which has expressed its inability to accept it in the current form,” Bharti said in a statement while applauding the support given to the proposed deal by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and others. The broad structure being discussed by the two companies had taken into account the sensibilities and sensitivities of both firms and their countries. “This transaction would have been the single largest FDI into South Africa and one of the largest outbound FDIs from India,” Bharti statement said, adding: “We hope the South African government will review its position in the future and allow both companies an opportunity to re-engage.” Senior management of Bharti, including Sunil Mittal, could not be reached immediately for comments as they are on a annual off-site, most likely in Pataya, Thailand. The decision to call off the negotiations has come just a day after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's remarks that the government has a positive approach towards the deal. “Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and myself have said we are taking a positive approach and outlook towards it," Mukherjee had said. Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said the discussions between the two has not reached at a stage to get regulatory clearances as the two firms were still discussing the structure of the deal. As per the proposed structure, Bharti would have acquired 49 per cent shareholding in MTN and in turn MTN and its shareholders would acquire about 36 per cent economic interest in Bharti. The South African government had demanded dual listing of MTN in order to protect the character of MTN as South African entity. — PTI
	Property as gift to be taxed from today Tribune News Service & PTI New Delhi, September 30 If you are receiving property as gift this Diwali, be known that you will have to pay tax on it. The Income Tax Act has been amended with effect from October 1, 2009, to provide that any gift-in-kind - being an immovable property or any other property - the value of which exceeds Rs 50,000, will become taxable in the hands of the donee. The tax would have to paid by the recipient by including the amount in his taxable income, said a notification issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) about three weeks ahead of the Diwali. Gifts received from local authorities, trusts or entities registered as charitable institutions would not attract the provisions of the new tax norms, it said. Therefore, any one who receives a gift of any such property on or after October 1, 2009, must pay income tax on the value of the gift. Besides, he will have to disclose the taxable value of such property in the income tax return for assessment year 2010-11 and subsequent years. But the good news is that if the immovable property or property is received from a relative or received under a will as inheritance will not be taxed. Such a gift received on the occasion of marriage of the individual is also exempt from tax. Prior to this change in the Income Tax Act, cash gifts exceeding Rs 25,000 were subject to tax. Then the Act was amended with effect from April 1, 2006, to tax all cash gifts having aggregate value exceeding Rs 50,000. However, cash gifts continue to enjoy exemptions as is available for gifts-in-kind.
	Corporate Wrongdoings Won’t go fishing for info, says Khurshid New Delhi, September 30 The Corporate Affairs Ministry today said it would not go out fishing just on allegations of corporate wrongdoings as in cases like the Ambani brothers’ feud and it does not intend to act as a ‘Kotwal’ (police). “We don’t go fishing. Nobody said anything to us...they may have complained to some other ministry, not us,” Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told when asked about allegations levelled by Anil Ambani group that Reliance Industries had jacked up its expenditure on gas operations. Declining that there was any role for the ministry or any scope of a probe by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), he said, “There is no such complaint as far as we are concerned...at my level there is nothing.” The Anil Ambani group recently alleged that Mukesh Ambani-led RIL had overstated the expenditure at its Krishna Godavari basin gas fields. The allegations have been refuted by the other side. Khurshid said that this message would also be given to the ministry’s machineries during the conference of Registrars of Companies and Regional Directors tomorrow. He said law should be observed in this country without fear or favour and the ministry would not “sit here with a stick looking for any opportunity to beat someone”. He added that the ministry would follow the principle of “trust and verify”, and for that the government would like to believe that India Inc was following all requisite regulations. Referring to initiatives taken by the government for strengthening corporate governance, the minister said that the new companies bill has already been introduced in Parliament. — PTI
	Setback to India’s oil diplomacy ONGC-Hinduja lose rights to develop Iran's oilfield to China New Delhi, September 30 In a major setback to India's oil diplomacy, the ONGC-Hinduja Group alliance has lost the rights to develop Iran's South Azadegan oilfield to CNPC of China. The joint venture of ONGC Videsh and Hinduja Group firm Ashok Leyland Project Services Ltd, was touted to get at least 45 per cent stake in the 260,000 barrels per day South Azadegan oilfield but Beijing apparently offered multi-billion dollar soft loans to bag the rights, industry sources said. The China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) on Sunday signed a contract with National Iranian Oil Co's overseas subsidiary Naftiran Intertrade Co (NICO) in Lausanne, Switzerland, to take 70 per cent stake in the oilfield along the Iraqi border. NICO, which held 90 per cent stake in the field, would be left with 20 per cent interest while Inpex of Japan would hold the remaining 10 per cent. Sources said China has agreed to even contribute NICO's share of the $2.5 billion cost for developing the field that holds an estimated 42 billion barrels of oil reserves, one of the world's largest finds in the last 30 years. CNPC had in January won rights to develop the North Azadegan oilfield and the Indian alliance was preferred for the southern fields as Iran was said to be against giving the entire block to one firm. South Azadegan and Phase-12 of the giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf were two projects the Indian joint venture was pursuing in Iran. An official in the ONGC-Hinduja joint venture confirmed losing South Azadegan oilfield to the Chinese but said the development rights to Phase-12 of South Pars field were yet to be decided. China, which has ignored western concerns over Tehran's nuclear programme, has secured several oil and gas projects in Iran since 2005, including Yadavaran oilfield and preliminary agreements for development of North Pars gas field and Phase- 11 of South Pars field. Sources said China has used its vast foreign exchange reserves - which are nearly double of India's $1.1 trillion GDP - to give loans to oil producing countries. — PTI
	Dabhol starts drawing Reliance gas New Delhi, September 30 The Dabhol power plant today started buying natural gas from Reliance Industries to cut electricity generation cost at the country's largest gas-fired unit. “We started drawing (RIL's) KG-D6 gas from today. The volumes were around 4.5 million standard cubic meters per day," said AK Ahuja, managing director of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd, the company that runs the 2,150 MW power plant and adjoining LNG receipt facility in Maharasthra. The government had this month more than doubled RGPPL's allocation from KG-D6 to 5.67 million standard cubic meters per day that will help generate about 1,000 MW of electricity. “We are currently operating three gas turbines producing 920-930 megawatt of electricity. We will add another 320 MW turbine by November-end, when the drawal would increase to 5.6 mmscmd," he said. RGPPL was initially allocated 2.7 mmscmd of gas for the period between April and September but the company had not drawn even a single unit as it had a running contract with Petronet LNG Ltd to buy imported liquefied natural gas. It paid a burner-tip price of $7.8 per million British thermal unit for the regassified-LNG sourced from Petronet. “The delivered price of KG-D6 gas would be $6.2 per mmBtu," Ahuja said, adding the cost of electricity generation will come down to about Rs 4 per unit from Rs 4.70 earlier. Ahuja said RGPPL would add one more turbine by end December or early January and the last one by end March, when the drawals from KG-D6 would rise to 8.4 mmscmd. RGPPL was currently generating electricity from three units and by the year end two more units would be made operational that would require an additional 1.6 mmscmd of gas from RIL's KG-D6 fields. — PTI
	Tata Tele to share infra with BSNL Tribune News Service & PTI New Dehi, September 30 Tata Teleservices (TTSL) said here today that it had signed an agreement to share state-run telecom Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) infrastructure across the country for 15 years. The first such partnership would help Tata Teleservices, the country’s sixth largest private telecom firm, to expand its GSM network expeditiously. “The agreement, which is valid for 15 years, will be applicable to both TTSL and TTSL (Maharashtra) in all 22 telecom circles in the country,” TTSL’s Legal and Regulatory Affairs president Madhav Joshi said after signing the agreement. The deal comes at a very strategic time for the Tatas as the company is in the process to launch its GSM mobile services under the Tata DOCOMO brand name and BSNL has infrastructure assets across the country - the largest for any telecom firm. Under the terms of the agreement, TTSL and TTML will have access to thousands of BSNL towers all across the country. The infrastructure sharing would give advantage to the company in terms of reduced cost and the same would be reflected in the tariff structure of both firms. In the last three months, the company has rolled out GSM services in nine circles - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Haryana. The infrastructure sharing would give advantage to the company in terms of reduced cost and the same would be reflected in the tariff structure of both the firms. “This agreement has the potential to not just speed up our network expansion and roll out process, but would also have a substantial impact in terms of reduced costs,” TTSL chief technology officer AG Rao said.
	Banks fail to achieve targets in SSI Shivani Bhakoo Tribune News Service Ludhiana, September 30 During review meetings on the performance of banks in the region for the quarter ending September 30, it has been found that they have failed to meet set targets in the small scale industries (SSI) and other priority sector (OPS). While banks officials maintain that this time the focus was on agriculture and allied sector and targets would be achieved by September-end, SSI units maintain that the banks avoid providing them with loans due to their inhibitions about recoveries. As per the latest performance review meeting, the banks were given a target of Rs 483 crore for thte SSI sector but they provided loans worth Rs 441 crore only. Similarly in OPS, the target for banks was Rs 305 crore but they achieved target of Rs 205 crore, with a difference of about Rs 100 crore. Talking to The Tribune, former manager, Punjab and Sind Bank (lead bank), Ludhiana, Jeet Singh said performance could be best judged after the end of the year. "There are clear-cut instructions by the RBI to provide loans to SSI sector and banks cannot deny on this. But due to recession, at times, controlling offices give instructions to respective bank branches to adopt squeezing strategy. By the end of the year, banks will achieve more than the given targets,” he said. RS Chattha, manager, Lead Bank, Amritsar, admitted that thte banks could not perform well, particularly in the two sectors. But the situation of recoveries had improved, he said.
	ATF prices cut by 2.1 pc New Delhi, September 30 For the second time this month, the state-owned oil firms today slashed jet fuel prices by 2.1 per cent in line with softening international rates. The aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price in Delhi has been cut by Rs 812.33 per kl to Rs 37,084.50 per kl, with effect from midnight tonight, an official of the Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation’s largest fuel retailer, said. IOC along with its sister PSUs, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp had from September 16 cut jet fuel rates by as much as 3.2 per cent to Rs 37,896.83 per kl. Jet fuel will cost Rs 38,246.60 per kl in Mumbai, the home to the nations’s busiest airport, from Rs 39,098.99. The reduction in rates will help cash-strapped airlines cut fuel cost, which constitutes roughly 40 per cent of their operational cost. No comments could be immediately obtained from any of the airlines on the possible impact of the cut on fares. ATF will cost Rs 45,235.94 per kl in Kolkata as against Rs 46,101.86 per kl currently and Rs 40,956.89 per kl in Chennai (Rs 41,850.52 per kl currently). — PTI
	Govt may allow GAIL to charge marketing margin New Delhi, September 30 In a significant development, the government may allow state gas utility GAIL India to charge a marketing margin on sale of APM or subsidised natural gas. The government currently regulates the price at which the gas produced from fields given to ONGC and Oil India Ltd is sold. GAIL has been nominated as the government agency for selling the fuel, called APM (Administered Pricing Mechanism) gas, from such fields. GAIL is not allowed to levy any charge for the marketing effort on selling this gas but in a draft Cabinet note on revision of APM gas price, the Petroleum Ministry has proposed to allow the company to charge $0.11 per million British thermal unit as marketing margin, official sources said. The move comes amidst protests over Reliance Industries charging $0.135 per mmBtu marketing margin on gas from its KG-D6 fields. While NTPC has sought specific confirmation of the levy, Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Infrastructure stopped paying the charge this month. — PTI
	OIL eyes overseas assets Mumbai, September 30 With a war chest of $2 billion, state-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) is looking to acquire crude oil producing assets or oil companies in Australia, South-East Asia, Africa, Russia and South America. The explorer, which got listed on the bourses today, has cash reserves of $1.5 billion and raised another $500 million through an IPO that closed on September 10, OIL chairman and managing director NM Borah said here today. “We are actively looking at acquiring producing assets or going for corporate takeover of a company which has producing assets of our kind of appetite,” he told reporters. “We are looking at assets which have 10,000-20,000 barrels of oil per day production capacity. Some geographies that we are looking at are South-East Asia, Australia, Africa, Russia and South America,” he said. India’s second-largest PSU explorer has oil blocks in Libya, Gabon, Nigeria, Iran, Timor Leste, Yemen and Sudan. “By the end of this year, we will be able to start exploratory drilling in our Libya operations. We are trying to get it forward in time,” Borah said. — PTI
	TCS inks multi-million dollar deal New Delhi, September 30 Software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today said it had signed a two-year multi-million dollar deal with Singapore-based People's Association for application management services. People's Association is a statutory board under Singapore's Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Under the pact, the IT major will develop and maintain People's Associations' business and citizen-centric applications, including mission critical applications, TCS said in a statement. “Our expertise in AMS, combined with our ability to deliver certainty of results will provide sustained value to People's Association," TCS Asia-Pacific EVP and Head Girija Pande said. — PTI