The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Centre moots cash relief for oil companies New Delhi, December 22 Finance Ministry today hinted at giving fuel retailers cash for the revenue they lose on selling domestic LPG and kerosene below cost instead of the prevalent practice of issuing oil bonds. “We would ideally want to provide (for revenue loss) in the Budget and not give oil bonds because either way its indirectly or directly part of the fiscal,” Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of the trading platform for trade receivables. “So there is no great need or a rationale in giving oil bonds to oil marketing companies,” he said. The government, which last fiscal issued oil bonds worth Rs 71,292 crore to Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, has not issued it this fiscal. This has seen BPCL and HPCL slip into red while IOC barely posted profit in Q2. In absence of bonds, the three may report losses in the third quarter, a worry that led Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking a direction to the Finance Ministry for issue of Rs 20,872 crore of oil bonds to make up for revenue loss of LPG and kerosene in first three quarters. “There is no specific decision on how much compensation is required to be given to the oil marketing companies. It is still under consideration and discussion,” he said. Chawla said a decision on giving out cash to retailers would have to be taken at the highest level. “A decision will have to be taken at the highest level, either in the Cabinet or its committee or at the level of some ministers on what is the arrangement for the current year 2009-10,” he said. Until that is done there is no clarity or finality on what the number will be, he said, adding, “assuming that there is some compensation from the government for the under-recoveries”. The government would be able to manage that even within this Budget, so we will not overshoot the fiscal deficit of 6.8 per cent, Chawla said. Though, the government had earlier this year explicitly decided to compensate IOC, HPCL and BPCL for the losses they incur on selling domestic LPG and kerosene through the Public Distribution System by way of oil bonds, the Finance Ministry has not issued any bonds for the three quarters. The three firms lost Rs 11,853 crore in revenues on not being allowed to raise LPG and kerosene prices in line with the cost during April-September. An additional Rs 9,019 crore revenue loss is estimated for the third quarter ending December 31, 2009. — PTI
	RIL’s third gas discovery in Krishna block New Delhi, December 22 Reliance Industries (RIL) today said it has made a third successive gas discovery in the D3 deep-sea block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, off the east coast. Reliance found three gas reservoirs in the KGV-D3-R1 well drilled on the block KG-DWN-2003/1 (or D3), a company statement said here. The block, located about 45 kilometres off the coast in the Bay of Bengal, is in the vicinity of its prolific D6 block where three of the 19 oil and gas finds have already been put on production. Reliance holds 90 per cent interest in the block that it won in the fifth round of auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). Hardy Exploration and Production India Inc, a unit of Hardy Oil of UK, has the remaining 10 per cent. “Three reservoir zones were encountered at Miocene level having gross thickness of 4, 23 and 16 meters,” the statement said, adding that the discovery has been named Dhirubhai-44. The first two exploratory wells resulted in gas discoveries (Dhirubhai 39 and 41) and are presently under appraisal. RIL is likely to drill three additional exploration wells on the block before the end of 2010. — PTI
	Montek backs decision on 3G auction Kolkata, December 22 Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said the decision to auction 3G spectrum as per schedule in January next year augurs well for investment to sector which expected to get a fillip soon. “The 3G auction decision taken yesterday is a major one,” Ahluwalia said here today in an address via video-conferencing at the CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence. Telecom Minister A Raja yesterday said that the Empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) had decided to auction 3G mobile spectrum as per schedule from January 14 next year and allotment would be made to four private players simultaneously by August. “It (the decision) will open the door to a lot of investments in 12 to 18 months,” he added. A spurt in investment to telecom sector is likely to prompt fund flows to infrastructure-related areas like ports and roads. He said already the Ministry of Roads and Transport has set an ambitious target to bid for 8,000 km of road projects in the current fiscal compared to an average of less than 2,000 km in the previous three years. Ahluwalia said the Planning Commission lent full support to the demand of the roads and highways ministry to bring some changes in model concession for road projects and agreed to the changes sought. “This was done after an internal review of the situation after the road programme got interrupted after the Lehman Brothers crisis and we hardly had any bids for the road project that was bid out in the last quarter,” he said. Ahluwalia said he was not satisfied with the progress in the infrastructure sector as it could expand faster but was confident that in one year from now India would definitely be able to say activities in infrastructure had gathered momentum. Underlining the importance of manufacturing, he said the service sector alone cannot provide sustainable growth of 9-10 per cent. He also said there should be enabling labour laws to encourage private companies to hire in large numbers and added that he was in favour of benchmarking India with China. On rising food prices, he said these would start easing from next month. “The situation suggests dysfunction in distribution as retail prices have shot much more than wholesale prices and import cannot be done without subsidy as international prices are higher,” he said. — PTI
	‘Made in Pakistan’ fair begins today Prabhjot Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 22 A gradual thaw in India’s earlier cold relations with Pakistan has not only helped in the restoration of people-to-people contact, but also acted as a catalyst for better bilateral trade between the two neighbours. And what could be a better indicator of these improved ties other than the growing acceptance of made-in-Pakistan goods in major north Indian cities. Since October this year, a third delegation from across the border, comprising 40 manufacturers and traders, is here to cater to buoyant consumer sentiments in the festive season of Christmas and New Year. These traders hailing from Karachi, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Lahore and other major Pakistani cities have brought a bouquet of Pakistani products, including garments, footwear, handicrafts, onyx, dry fruit, cutlery, marble, melamine, furniture, cutlery, paintings, gemstones, sports goods and also music CDs. These products will be on display in the first-ever exclusive ‘Made in Pakistan’ exhibition organised by the CII at its regional headquarters here for the next five days, beginning from tomorrow. “The bilateral trade, touching US $2 million, has the potential to grow manifold to lead to an increased economic and trade-related inter-dependence between the two neighbours,” says Partap Aggarwal, chairman, CII Chandigarh Council. “We are keen that a similar made-in-India show be organised in Pakistan. We will do our best to get it done soon,” says Parvez Bandey, leader of the visiting delegation. Pakistani manufacturers earlier had successful participation in the CII Consumer Fair in Chandigarh and International Trade Fair in Delhi. A participant from Lahore finds Indian buyers passionate about quality stuff from across the border. This is one reason that the number of participants has risen from 25 in October to 45 this time. The total number of participants from Pakistan is over 120. A cultural troupe, including folk singers, could not come because of delay in visa clearance. Both CII and Pakistan delegation want a custom regime in place so that movement of goods for such exhibitions and trade shows can be freely freighted across the land borders. Another highlight of the expo will be the food courts at the show, which will serve the Pakistani cuisine, thus, bringing a flavour of the Anarkali bazaar of Lahore to Chandigarh.
	Slowdown casts shadow over Auto Expo New Delhi, December 22 The car market might be anticipating but the country’s marque event, Auto Expo starting on January 5, is being cut short to just a week as participants want to curtail expenditure in the face of the global slowdown. “We are reducing the duration of the expo by two days. This has been done on feedback from participants and members, and it is for cutting expenditure due to the economic condition,” Auto Expo steering committee chairman Rajiv Kaul told reporters here. He, however, said the expo would see 1.8 million people, and director-general of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Dilip Chenoy claimed it would be the biggest in the world in terms of footfall. The biennial expo, last held in 2008 lasted for nine days, January 9-17. The 10th Auto Expo in 2010 will see over ten global launches and about 2100 participants from 30 countries showcasing their products in 1.25 lakh sq mt of area. “There will be more than 10 global launches in the expo and this shows how the Indian market is getting importance for global auto makers...We are very pleased to see the response,” SIAM president Pawan Goenka told reporters in a video conference. Elaborating on participants, Kaul said about 800 would be international exhibitors, including from Canada, China, the US, France, Germany, Myanmar, Pakistan and the UK. It is a jump of 40 per cent compared to last Auto Expo in 2008. Some of the auto makers, which will showcase their new products include Maruti Suzuki, General Motors, Toyota and Honda. Kaul said the auto fair, which witnessed order bookings worth Rs 1,000 crore in 2008, is expecting its revenue to grow marginally. — PTI
	Tightening of key rates won’t hit growth: Kamath Mumbai, December 22 ICCI Bank chairman KV Kamath today said even if there is a tightening of policy rates, companies will be able to source finance and manage expansions from other sources such as internal accruals and growth would not be affected. Amid speculation that the RBI may soon take measures to suck out liquidity from the system to contain inflation, he said strong internal cash accruals and a buoyant equity market were providing the necessary funding to companies. “Even if there is a tightening (of policy rates), I think they (corporate houses) would manage because the flip side of this is that today you are seeing a lot of liquidity, which is despite the sort of growth that we are getting,” Kamath said. He said firms were now looking at banks as just a supplement route for raising finance. “Corporate clients are on their growth path on their own because they are facilitated by very strong internal cash accruals and a very buoyant equities market which is giving them all the funding resources they want,” Kamath said. He said the next 10 years held an immense growth potential and India’s GDP as well as per capita income would double. Asked whether any pent-up demand was being witnessed in corporate borrowings, Kamath said that it was not pent-up demand but corporate lendings for new projects, and within new projects, corporates were focusing on infrastructure. — PTI
	Govt to take Sebi’s letter ‘seriously’ New Delhi, December 22 The government today said it would take “seriously” market regulator Sebi’s letter for appropriate action against Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for alleged routing of funds to dummy companies for buying its own shares in 2000. “Sebi’s letter has to be taken seriously... The government does not want to anticipate anything. If Sebi has taken nine years, let us take at least nine days,” Corporate Affairs Minister Samlam Khurshid said, but cautioned that nobody would be allowed to “dig old graves”. Asked for his comments on Sebi’s communication to the Ministry earlier this month, he told reporters, “The regulator will do its work. If anybody tries to exert pressure, we will not work under pressure”. Sebi was probing a complaint by S Gurumurthy of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch alleging that RIL and its investors lost at least Rs 2,700 crore in issuance of shares at a much lower price than what was allocated to the state-owned UTI. After taking the opinion of retired Supreme Court Justice BN Srikrishna on its own investigation report, Sebi had asked the Ministry to take “appropriate action” against RIL for sale of 12 crore shares, representing over 11 per cent of total equity, through this route. “If anybody tries to do post mortem by digging old graves, then we will rather focus on the work forward than engage in post mortem,” Khurshid said, adding that RIL had been demerged since then. — PTI