New Delhi, December 7
The Petroleum Ministry has sought oil bonds worth Rs 20,871 crore for state-run fuel retailers to make up for the losses incurred on selling domestic LPG and kerosene below cost during the first three quarters of this fiscal.

Three fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) lost about Rs 26,618 crore in revenues on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost during the first half of the current fiscal, a ministry official said.

Of this, Rs 20,000 crore is revenue lost on LPG and kerosene, the remaining was on account of petrol and diesel.

"We have sought Rs 20,000 crore of oil bonds to cover for under-recoveries on LPG and kerosene in the first three quarters," Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas additional secretary S Sundareshan said.

While the government had committed to meeting the revenue loss arising from its dictate of not increasing prices for domestic LPG and kerosene in step with the cost, non-issuance of oil bonds till now has led HPCL and BPCL report net losses in the July-September quarter.

"We are confident of getting the oil bonds (this time)," he said, adding Finance Ministry may seek approval for the oil bonds in the supplementary demands for grants to be presented to Parliament during the current session.

HPCL reported a net loss of Rs 136.68 crore in the second quarter, while BPCL posted a net loss of Rs 158.77 crore. IOC was slightly better off, registering a net profit of Rs 284.36 crore.

"We have made our demand to the Finance Ministry and it is now for them to get the approval from Parliament," he said.

The government had earlier this year decided to make good all of the revenue loss on sale of domestic LPG and kerosene through issue of oil bonds, while the same on petrol and diesel would be mostly met by upstream firms like OIL and ONGC.

The three firms currently lose Rs 3.68 a litre on petrol, Rs 2.90 per litre on diesel, Rs 18.13 a litre on kerosene and Rs 250.67 per domestic LPG cylinder as the government has not allowed them to revise retail prices in line with costs.

For the full fiscal, the three firms will close with a total revenue loss of Rs 45,820 crore.— PTI

Chandigarh, December 7
Private players are waiting for the clearance from the government to run nuclear power generation plants in the country, says Navraj Singh, vice-president, business development of JSW Energy, revealing his company’s immense interest in any such project.

Since JSW Energy has in-house expertise in hydel and thermal power generation in the country, it will be ready to get into nuclear power generation after the government opens the field to private players.

Accompanied by Manoj Kumar Mohta, associate vice-president, Finance, Navraj Singh, said his company was aware of the government’s growing concern over carbon emissions and heat level of the thermal plants because of the mounting worldwide pressure.

“In all our new power projects, we are going for the super-critical technology that reduces coal consumption by 10 per cent. By 2012, it will be mandatory for all new thermal power plants to go for indigenous super critical technology. In continuation of government policies, we have already entered into collaboration with Toshiba for manufacturing boilers and turbines in India. Work on our plant near Chennai has already started,” he said.

“From our present capacity of 935 MW, we will be producing 11,000 MW by the end of 2015,” claims Manoj Kumar Mohta. “Our new plants include a 240 MW hydel unit in Kuthail in Himachal Pradesh which will be ready for commissioning by end of 2014 or early 2015. Under the agreement with the HP government, JSW Energy would give for first 12 years 12 per cent of total power generated at the project. It would go to 18 per cent for the next 18 years and, thereafter, the share of free power to the state would go up to 40 per cent.

“We did bid in Punjab for the Rajpura thermal plant,” he disclosed.

Dubai, December 7
The stock markets were in the negative terrain across the United Arab Emirates today led by the Dubai bourse which plunged six per cent, as investors awaited details about the extent of the Dubai World burden.

Led by real estate developer Emaar, which crashed about 10 per cent, the Dubai market fell nearly six per cent. The Emirate's benchmark DFM Index closed at 1,744.83 points.

The negative sentiment was visible on the Abu Dhabi and Kuwait stock exchanges too. While the General Index in Abu Dhabi fell 1.73 per cent to 2,626.95 points, Kuwait's Market Index declined almost one per cent to 6,678.90 points. However, the Qatar Exchange managed to gain over one per cent, with the country's benchmark index climbing 1.06 per cent to 7,132.26 points.

The crisis in the Gulf region unfolded after Dubai World, a conglomerate owned by the Dubai government, sought six months additional time to repay its debts worth $59 billion.— PTI

New Delhi, December 7
Vijay Mallya-led United Breweries today scored a tactical victory over Heineken, with the Dutch beer major saying that it would acquire the contentious Asia Pacific Breweries (India) and merge it with the Indian giant.

"We are delighted to announce the partnership with Heineken... based on the legal advices both sides... we will be making and marketing Heineken in India," UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya told reporters today.

He said it will be a win-win situation, as UB Group would have access to brand such as Heineken and Cannon while Heineken would make and sell UB's international brand Kingfisher in other countries.

Mallya said Heineken has also agreed to merge its operations in India with the company. As part of the new agreement, Heineken will acquire Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) India and its subsequent transaction intends to transfer this to UBL during 2010, Heineken chairman and CEO Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said.

Heineken, along with beer major Carlsberg, acquired UK-based Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), which had around a 37 per cent stake in UBL. As a fallout of which the stake in UBL was transferred to Hieneken. — PTI 

Chandigarh, December 7
The Union Bank of India is planning a major expansion overseas as well as in the domestic market.

Talking to TNS here today, MV Nair, chairman of the bank, said they were planning to open three new rep offices at London, Johannesburg and Toronto, besides opening a branch at Belgium. “Although we have the requisite permission from Reserve Bank of India, we are awaiting nod from the local regulators in these countries. We are hopeful of opening the branches by year 2010,” he said.

Nair, who was here to inaugurate the bank’s branch in Sector 30, said the bank already has presence in Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney. “These rep offices are giving us a good business. Our office in Abu Dhabi is already accounting for five per cent of the total remittances from West Asia. Even the Hong Kong office is doing well and we have set a target that it will yield us business worth $550 million (almost three per cent of the turnover) by 2010,” he said.

The bank is also planning a major expansion in the domestic market. “We are planning to open 250 new branches in the next 12 months. With a capital adequacy of 13.6 per cent, we would not require to raise any money for this expansion, although we are planning to raise Rs 500 million through the MTN route (mid-term notes) by February 2010,” said the chairman, adding that the total business of the bank now stood at Rs 2,44,000 crore.

He said though the bank had grown from strength to strength in the past two years, they were now planning to enter into the second phase of transformation with a focus on being customer-centric. “As part of this, we have hired an international HR consultant for augmenting skill levels of our staff. Besides, we are also focusing on upgradation of technology. In the past two years, we have already spent Rs 250 crore on technology upgradation and have set aside an annual budget of Rs 100 crore for the purpose,” he added.

Nair, who is also the chairman of the Indian Banks’ Association, said the association has now reached a compromise with various bank employees associations on the issue of wage revision and giving the second option of pension. “A core group has been formed, which is expected to work out the modalities for the implementation of the revised wage revision, in three months,” he said.

New Delhi, December 7
The government has earned a staggering Rs 8,307.85 crore from telecom operators providing mobile phone services by way of licence fees in 2008-09.

Parliament was informed today that during the first six months (up to the second quarter of the current fiscal) of 2009-10, the Department of Telecom (DoT) had already collected Rs 4,112.30 crore.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Telecom and IT Gurudas Kamat said Bharti Airtel had paid the maximum licence fee of Rs 2,246.27 crore for 2008-09.

Mobile operators pay 6-10 per cent of their respective adjusted gross revenue (AGR) to the government as licence fee depending on the circle in which they operate.

According to figures provided by the government, it had earned Rs 5,988.87 crore in 2006-07, while in 2007-08, it earned 7,289.76 crore.

India is among the fastest-growing telecom markets in the world, especially mobile services, with over 12 million users being added every month.

The government raised a demand of Rs 85.48 crore from various mobile players due to annual assessment of licences with a maximum of Rs 48.55 crore from Reliance Communications, the minister said.

He said there was no proposal to appoint an ombudsman for the telecom sector to settle grievances.

Kamat said the government had ordered special audit of some private telecom operators which include audit of revenue from bundled handset packages.