Hyderabad, November 24
In fresh revelations regarding Satyam Computers scandal, the CBI today said the company’s disgraced chairman B Ramalinga Raju had created fake customers and invoices to inflate revenues to the tune of Rs 430 crore.

Raju and other accused in the biggest corporate fraud had also forged the Board Resolutions and obtained unauthorised loans of Rs 1,220 crore in the name of Satyam Computers, the investigating agency said in its supplementary chargesheet filed before a special court here.

The 200-page chargesheet, citing 1,549 additional documents and 301 additional witnesses and nine material objects, brought out new set of irregularities perpetrated by Raju and nine others accused in the case.

Huge assets acquired by the accused with the fraud amounts have been identified. A total of 1,065 properties, whose documented value is Rs 350 crore, have been identified which includes around 6,000 acres of land, 40,000 sq.yds of housing plots and 90,000 sq.ft. of built-up area.

The CBI also unearthed a conspiracy to cover up accounting scam in Satyam Computers through the aborted Satyam-Maytas acquisition deal. In the process, the investors of Maytas Infra Ltd and Maytas Properties Ltd, owned by Raju’s sons, were also cheated, it said.

The scamsters had also resorted to criminal breach of trust in matters pertaining to declaration and disbursement of dividends. They had also falsified the accounts regarding acquisition of shares of Nipuna Services Ltd, the BPO arm of Satyam Computers.

The internal auditor VS Prabhakar Gupta, who was arrested recently, had now been arraigned as additional accused in willful suppression of auditing irregularities, the chargesheet said.

The CBI said it was planning to file separate chargesheets pertaining to diversion of Satyam funds and the fraud perpetrated by the accused with regard to filing of IT returns of the company.

Earlier, the CBI had filed the first chargesheet on April 7, nearly three months after the multi-crore accounting fraud came to light.

The original chargesheet, running into 2,315 pages, had said Raju and his younger brother and former managing director of the software giant Rama Raju were the main architects of the massive fraud while others assisted them in fudging the figures.

Apart from Raju brothers, former CFO of Satyam V Srinivas, auditors of PriceWaterhouse S Gopalakrishnan and T Srinivas , G Ramakrishna (vice- president, finance), D Venkatapathy Raju, (senior manager, finance) and Srisailam, (assistant manager, finance) and Raju’s another brother Suryanarayana Raju were named as accused in the chargesheet.

The accused have been chargesheeted for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of valuable security, using a forged document as genuine, falsification of accounts and for causing disappearance of evidence. Ramalinga Raju had made a disgraceful exit on January 7 after confessing to cooking the company's account books and inflating profits over the past several years. 

New Delhi, November 24
It's Ambanis all the way in the Indian corporate world in terms of pay package or dividend earnings. With a package of over Rs 52 crore in 2008-09, younger brother Anil has topped the list of executives in terms of compensation, while elder Mukesh has emerged as the country's highest dividend earner at Rs 930 crore, as per rankings compiled by Business India magazine.

In the top-five of compensation chart, Anil is followed by Kalanithi Maran and Kaveri Maran of Sun TV with packages of Rs 37.08 crore each, Madras Cements' PRR Rajha (Rs 28.7 crore) and Jindal Steel & Power's Naveen Jindal (Rs 28.27 crore), the magazine said in a statement today.

It is the first time that Mukesh does not figure among top-10 executives in terms of compensation package ever since the magazine started compiling the annual list in 2002.

Mukesh has been ranked at 19th position with a package of Rs 15 crore, owing to his voluntary salary cut of 66 per cent announced a few weeks ago. — PTI

New Delhi, November 24
The Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries has reopened about two-thirds of its 1,432 petrol pumps in the country and is selling about 2,000 kilolitres of auto fuel per day, RIL president-refinery business P Raghavendran said today.

"We are selling about 2,000 kl per day from 900 petrol stations, mostly in the western and southern markets," he said here, adding at many of these stations, it is selling the fuel at rates on par with the heavily subsidised price of its public sector rivals.

Reliance had shut its 1,432 filling stations in March 2008 after sales dropped to almost nil as it could not match the subsidised price offered by the government-owned IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, who got compensated from the government for selling fuel below cost.

"We are selling where we can match PSU price," he said. The three state-run retailers sell petrol at Rs 3.85 a litre lower than cost of production and diesel at Rs 3.71 per litre lower.

Raghavendran said we are the only nation that is so heavily dependent on imports to meet oil needs yet subsidies the fuel heavily.

Unlike sectors like fertilisers, the oil subsidy is limited only to public sector firms, he said, and pointed out that in the 2008-09 fiscal, the government issued oil bonds worth over Rs 1,03,000 crore to PSU fuel retailers for selling petrol, diesel, domestic cooking gas and kerosene below cost.

The model of permanently adopting such a large subsidy programme is not sustainable for the economy, he said.

Reliance surrendered its only-for-export status for one of its refineries in Jamnagar which is now being used to supply fuel to its outlets. IOC, BPCL and HPCL get bonds from the government and discounts from crude producer ONGC for selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost. The same compensation is not given to private retailers like Reliance, Essar and Royal Dutch Shell, he pointed out. — PTI 

New Delhi, November 24
Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) today pleaded in the Supreme Court that its chairman Anil Ambani was entitled to join the Reliance Industries (RIL) Board headed by his brother Mukesh, as RIL had failed to facilitate the demerger scheme within 18 months as agreed in the family MoU.

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani made the contention before a special Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan as Anil watched the day-long hearing of the case, arising from a dispute over RIL refusal to supply gas to RNRL at $2.34 a unit.

"As per the 18th June 2005 resolution of the RIL Board, Anil Ambani was to be reinstated on the RIL Board in case the scheme of arrangement does not go through. One seat on the RIL Board was kept vacant for this purpose," Jethmalani said.

Disputing RIL's contention that its Board was not even aware of the MoU, Jethmalani said the June 18 resolution "clearly demonstrates" that the Board's decision on restructuring was based on the MoU.

RIL Board had passed the resolution welcoming the MoU and observing that it was in the interest of shareholders. It was also aware of the painstaking efforts of the two promoters' mother Kokilaben for arriving at a settlement on business reorganisation, he said.

The pricing of gas, its quantity (28 million units) and the duration (17 years) were never in contention in the MoU and until the government fixed a higher price at $4.2 a unit in collusion with RIL, Jethmalani contended.

Also, RIL was well aware of the fact that the Dadri power plant was not yet ready and its completion would take some years. His client, Anil, was subjected to "peak of humiliation" by the July 27, 2004 resolution of the RIL Board, handing over all powers to Mukesh thereby stripping the younger brother of all responsibilities.

New Delhi, November 24
The Finance Ministry has constituted a working group to recommend changes in the existing policies on FIIs flows and participatory notes (PNs), with a view to attract more foreign portfolio investments.

The move comes despite the rising apprehensions in some quarters over the surge in foreign capital flows and even calls to tax/control the same, as it is leading to steeper appreciation of the rupee.

The rupee has appreciated over five per cent against the dollar in the last six months, hitting the exports sector.

Portfolio investment is a route through which foreign entities can purchase shares or bonds or money market instruments but without enjoying ownership or management control of the entities they invested in. Participatory notes are one of such routes through which unregistered entities invest in the domestic stock markets.

The 16-member group on portfolio investments, to be headed by UTI MF chairman and managing director UK Sinha, will also review the policies on other foreign portfolio investment by NRIs and venture capital funds, sources said.

The committee has been given four months to submit report.

The group has been asked to review the existing policy on foreign portfolio inflows and suggest rationalisation with a view to encourage foreign investment and reduce policy hurdles, the sources added.

The group is also expected to identify challenges in meeting the financing needs of the economy through foreign investment, they informed.

The body would also examine the rationale of securities transaction tax and stamp duty. — PTI

Chandigarh, November 24
The poor credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) in six districts of Haryana has become a major cause for concern. At least six districts in the state have a CD ratio less than the statutory requirement of 60 per cent.

The issue of a low CD ratio in Gurgaon, Rewari, Ambala, Rohtak, Sonepat and Jhajjar came up for debate during the 109th State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting held here today. Though the overall CD ratio in Haryana is higher than the requirement of 60 per cent (at 68 per cent), the bankers have expressed concern over the poor credit offtake in the above mentioned districts.

The credit offtake has been the lowest in Gurgaon (41 per cent), followed by Sonepat (45 per cent), Rohtak (51 per cent) and Jhajjar (56 per cent). Though the CD ratio in Rewari and Ambala is around 59 per cent each, it is still below the stipulated level as per national goal. Bankers say that though there is an increase in loans and advances, but the low CD ratio is due to more accretion of deposits on account of acquisition of land in these districts.

Expressing concern at the low credit offtake here, the RBI has now asked the SLBC to monitor the CD ratio area wise. The meeting also highlighted that the CD ratio was lower in certain banks with IDBI having just 6 per cent ratio, followed by IndusInd Bank ( 24 per cent), State Bank of Travancore ( 27 per cent), Corporation Bank (29 per cent), Vijaya Bank ( 31 per cent). Other banks in Haryana which have a CD ratio of less than 40 per cent are Indian Bank (32 per cent), Axis Bank (34 per cent) and Andhra Bank (37 per cent).

It was also revealed that though the overall CD ratio has remained static, there has been a marginal decline (of four per cent) in the CD ratio in rural and semi-urban areas. As against a 64 per cent ratio in June 2008, the ratio was just 60 per cent in June 2009.

The SLBC has now been asked to constitute a special sub committee of district level consultative committee in the districts where the CD ratio is less. This sub committee will draw up a monitorable action plan to increase the ratio on a self-set graduated basis. Banks will now be asked to implement area/block-specific credit schemes; strengthen investment under agriculture and allied activities like dairying, poultry, bee keeping and fishery; and, to analyse and monitor CD ratio of each branch and initiate suitable measures to improve the same. 

Chandigarh, November 24
Punjab National Bank is all set to buy a majority stake in Kazakhstan-based Dana Bank. The bank has set aside $18-20 million for the purpose.

Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the 109th State Level Bankers Committee, Nagesh Pydah, executive director of the bank, said they were hoping to buy 63.64 per cent stake in Dana Bank. “We hope that the bank will come in our fold by the end of this fiscal. Dana bank has five branches with a total business size of $60 million.”

He further said the bank intended to acquire majority stake in Kazakh bank at par and not at premium. Pydah said acquisition of Dana bank would also allow PNB to penetrate in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries as well. “We have started imparting training to the staff, who will be deputed in the five branches of Dana Bank to learn the local language so that they can communicate with the customers in their native language,” he said.

Pydah said the bank was expected to complete the due diligence within 10 days. He added that PNB has targeted to increase the share of business overseas from three per cent of balance sheet to 20 per cent by 2013. 

BRIEFLY

Tourists ride on a river taxi along the waterfront in Singapore on Tuesday. Singapore has declared that the severe recession was over after two straight quarters of growth and predicted the economy would expand by up to 5 per cent in 2010. Industrial data showed that GDP has risen by 14.2 per cent in the July-September period on a quarter-on-quarter annualised basis after a 21.7 per cent surge in the previous three-month period. — AFP

Sistema-Shyam  to go public
New Delhi: Sistema-Shyam Teleservices Ltd, a joint venture between the Russian firm Sistema and the Shyam Group, on Tuesday said it will start the process of listing its Indian operations on the local bourses by next year. "We will start the process of listing by next year. A high court order requires us to prepare for listing. Clearly, we will comply with the high court order," Sistema-Shyam CEO Vsevolod Rozanov said here. — PTI

Airtel plan for US users
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced the pay-per-second plan on its virtual calling card service, 'Airtel CallHome', for its customers in the US. Airtel CallHome has so far been available in the UK, Canada and Singapore. "With this, Airtel becomes the first to offer pay-per-second plans for the US to India calling card market," it said.— TNS

SBI MF dividend
Mumbai: The Trustees of SBI Mutual Fund have declared a dividend of 50 per cent for the Magnum Balanced Fund under the Dividend Option plan. The record date has been fixed on Friday, November 27, a press release issued here said.— PTI

BHEL bags Rs 5,600-cr order
New Delhi: BHEL on Tuesday said it has bagged a Rs 5,600-crore contract from an arm of Jaiprakash Associates for setting up a 1,980-MW thermal power plant in Uttar Pradesh. BHEL has secured the contract from Prayagraj Power Generation Company Ltd (PPGCL), a company-owned by Jaiprakash Associates, for setting up a 1,980-MW thermal power project in Uttar Pradesh, the company said. — PTI