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Pre-Budget Exercise
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Nationwide MNP from today
Haryana exempts SEZs from local levies
RBI relaxes norms for banks to support MFIs
IndiGo gets nod for global operations
Corporate Results
RCom raises Rs 1,155 cr
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Pre-Budget Exercise
New Delhi, January 19 The FM said: “Issues have to be tackled collectively without entering into any blame game and while the Centre is doing its bit, the states also have to take effective and urgent steps to lower food prices”. He added there was a strong case to review and reform the Agriculture Produce Marketing Act (APMC) in states where it has not been done so far. Addressing the state finance ministers during pre-budget consultations, Mukherjee said that the government-regulated markets are not only imposing taxes and facilitating large commissions and fees for the middlemen, but also preventing the retailers to integrate their enterprise directly with the farmers. The FM said that this leaves no incentive for the farmers to upgrade and inhibits private investments in the sector and farmers and consumers both lose out in the process. He said that the events in the food economy in the last two years, indicate that the required supply response to the initiatives in the agriculture sector have not materialised adequately. He said that food inflation has remained high and volatile due to significant increase in the prices of a few primary items like fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, poultry, eggs and fish, even as the prices of cereals and pulses have declined sharply in the current year. He added that while there are some weather induced supply constraints on some of the items currently exhibiting high inflation, a large part of price rise is due to widening gap between the wholesale and retail prices and the growing demand for these products due to rising income levels. He said that the Central Government has taken measures to facilitate imports and, where required, restrict exports to ensure the supply of essential commodities. Mukherjee asked the state Finance Ministers to urgently look into the supply management of items that are driving the current round of food inflation, in particular local factors that are widening the gap between the wholesale and retail prices. On the fiscal front, the Finance Minister said that in addition to growth in States’ own taxes due to improved economic performance, the States have received higher share in Central taxes from the 13 th Finance Commission. He said that in the past few years many states have consistently run cash surpluses. He added states require some float for smooth expenditure, accumulation of cash beyond a level is inefficient and results in avoidable carrying costs. In general, states with large balances need to use their existing cash surpluses before resorting to fresh borrowings. He also raised the issue of very poor financial health of the State electric utilities, which if not addressed urgently, would impact their fiscal consolidation efforts and the economy of their state. |
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Nationwide MNP from today
Chandigarh, January 19 With MNP allowing consumers to choose their own operators, while retaining their numbers, the consumer can now choose to port out of a service operator’s network by paying just Rs 19. All telecom operators are wary of losing their ‘disgruntled’ customers and have started with a ‘Thank you’ sms to its 1.80 crore subscribers in the Punjab circle (1.50 crore GSM and around 30 lakh CDMA). For the past one week, Idea Cellular and Airtel have been sending these messages to their subscribers in the Punjab telecom circle. A major advertisement campaign, on the television and radio, has also been launched by all major operators led by Idea, Airtel and Vodafone. With service provided to the customer, customer management and tariff plans set to dictate whether the customer sways to another operator, operators have made several attempts to keep their customer base intact. Talking to TNS here today, Prem Ojha, business head, wireless and CDMA, Connect, said in order to cash in on the MNP, the company has launched lowest calling rates (STD and local), while reducing the tariff substantially on all calls across all networks. “We will now offer the ground breaking rate of 25 paisa per minute, which will be the best value proposition for customers who want to cut costs,” he said. Bharti Airtel today announced the launch of toll-free number (1800-103-1111) to help the mobile customers across Punjab, Haryana, HP and Jammu and Kashmir to get information and process to avail MNP. |
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Haryana exempts SEZs from local levies
Chandigarh, January 19 Addressing industry representatives at a meeting organised by the Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZs here today, Y S Malik, financial commissioner, Industries, Haryana, said that the state will extend exemption (from taxes, duty) to SEZ developers also. “There is a requirement for bringing amendment in the rules (of SEZ Act) and .we will push for exemption in the coming budget," he said. The state government also said that from now on it would not give any clearance for an SEZ, unless the developer had made arrangements for all water requirements in his SEZ. The state government has agreed to have a single window system for providing refund of stamp duty paid on transfer of land. Many of the SEZ developers, including DLF, have pointed out that the duty refund process was very long, which blocked their funds. During the meeting, SEZ developers also sought exemption from External Development Charges (EDC). |
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RBI relaxes norms for banks to support MFIs
Mumbai, January 19 The bank said it would facilitate operations till Malegam Committee submitted its report and measures are taken to bring about long-term and structural changes in the functioning of MFIs.Under the new norms, which will remain effective till March 31, 2011, banks would be allowed to treat the advances to MFIs as good assets even if such loans are not fully secured. The decision would allow banks to restructure loans provided to the MFIs without much difficulty. The decision follow a meeting called by the Reserve Bank last month to assess the problem of the microfinance sector in Andhra Pradesh and other States and also to work out interim measures to deal with the situation. To prevent the problem from fanning out to States other than Andhra, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) urged the RBI to relax the debt restructuring guidelines for the MFI sector. The problems in the microfinance sector erupted after the Andhra Government imposed restrictions on activities of the MFIs following spate of suicide by harried borrowers.
— PTI |
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IndiGo gets nod for global operations
New Delhi, January 19 The airline, which bagged the second position after Jet Airways in terms of the number of passengers, got permission for launching international operations from the forthcoming summer schedule, which begins in April and continues till October-November. An airline spokesperson said today that the flights would be operated from several Indian cities to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and Muscat. However, “the schedules and dates for the launch of these international services will be announced in the coming months,” she added. The criteria for permission to launch international operations is that the airline should complete five years of domestic operations and have a 20-aircraft fleet. Sources said the first global flight would be launched as soon as IndiGo completes five years of domestic operations in August this year and added that it could also be matched with the fifth anniversary
celebration. Preparations are on in full swing, they said. A company statement said, “IndiGo is delighted to receive these important traffic rights and is grateful to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for approving its application in a timely manner.” With its fleet of 34 new Airbus A-320 aircraft, the airline, which now has a market share of 18.6 per cent that is more than Air India’s and matches that of Kingfisher, offers 221 daily flights connecting 24 destinations.
— PTI |
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Corporate Results
New Delhi, January 19 The company had a net profit of Rs 475.14 crore in the same quarter a year ago, Bajaj Auto said. During the third quarter this fiscal, net sales grew 27 per cent to Rs 4,028.18 crore as against Rs 3,165.84 crore posted in the same period last fiscal, it said. Hindustan Zinc
Vedanta Group firm Hindustan Zinc (HZL) today reported a 12.26 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 1,289.58 crore for the quarter ended December 31 on the back of record production of zinc and lead. HZL's net sales improved by 17.3 per cent to Rs 2,601.47 crore in Q3, FY'11, as against Rs 2,216.73 crore in the third quarter of the previous fiscal. Reliance Infra
Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd (RIIL) today reported a 16.69 per cent dip in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, to Rs 4.89 crore. The company, which is engaged in the infrastructure business, had posted a net profit of Rs 5.87 crore for the same quarter last fiscal, it said. Income from operations during the quarter also decreased marginally to Rs 13.03 crore from Rs 13.21 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
— PTI |
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RCom raises Rs 1,155 cr
New Delhi, January 19 "RCom will benefit from extension of maturity and substantial savings in interest costs from the facility," the company said in a regulatory statement. The loan is funded by a consortium of banks led by Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, DBS Bank Ltd and Intesa Sanpaolo Spa. Last month, RCom signed an MoU with China Development Bank to refinance the $1.33 billion paid for 3G spectrum to the Department of Telecommunications. |
Tata Steel raises Rs 508 crore ICICI Bank offer Airtel DTH offer RBI Deputy Governor New Rs 10 notes Pearls Infrastructure AIPL’s new project
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Mumbai, January 19
