Mumbai, April 12
Bullish foreign fund houses have invested over $1.5 billion (about Rs 7,100 crore) in the Indian equity market in the first five trading sessions of this month.

Till April 11, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were gross buyers of shares worth Rs 23,202.20 crore, while they sold equities amounting to Rs 16,095.80 crore, resulting in a net investment of Rs 7,106.50 crore or $1.6 billion, as per the data available with the capital markets regulator, Sebi

According to analysts, FIIs have been pumping funds into India because of its strong growth potential and feels that in the coming days too, the foreign fund houses are likely to infuse money in the Indian bourses.

“The FII continued to witness inflows in April after having a good supply of money in the last month. One of the reason could be the expectation of good corporate earnings,” SMC Capital’s Equity Head Jagannathan Thunuguntla said. Besides, foreign fund houses were negative on debt market and pulled out Rs 1,227.00 crore or $275.94 million. This takes the overall net investments by FIIs into stocks and bonds to a total of Rs 5,879.50 crore or about $1.32 billion.

In January, overseas investors had pulled out Rs 4,813.2 crore from stock market. The outflow continued in February too with Rs 4,585.5 crore being taken out from equities but the scenario changed in March, when they were net investors of equities worth Rs 6,749.60 crore.

This has taken the gross purchases of equities in the country by FIIs so far this year to over Rs 1.91 lakh crore. After taking into account the outgo of Rs 1.86 lakh crore, overseas investors have made a net investment of Rs 4,605.60 crore. - PTI

New Delhi, April 12
The Petroleum Ministry has sought security clearance Home Ministry for allowing UK’s BP Plc to buy 30 per cent stake in most of Reliance Industries’ oil and gas blocks, including the gigantic eastern offshore KG-D6 fields.

Upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has processed application made by Reliance for transfer of its 30 per cent interest in 23 oil and gas blocks, a senior government official said.

“The DGH had sought some clarifications on the $7.2 billion deal which Reliance has already provided. Now, the Petroleum Ministry has approached the Home Ministry for a no-objection,” he said.

Europe’s second biggest oil company will pay $7.2 billion for 30 per cent stake in 23 out of 26 exploration blocks held by Reliance and a performance payment of up to $1.8 billion if the tie-up leads to the development of commercial discoveries.

The official said the Home Ministry clearance is needed keeping in mind the strategic nature of the exploration and production business.

The Home Ministry may look into the shareholding pattern and organisational structure of BP besides doing a background check of board of directors and some of the key operational heads of the company before giving its no-objection certificate, he said.

After the NOC, the Petroleum Ministry may accord an in- principal approval to the transaction, after which amendments to the Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) of the 23 blocks would be done with, by inducting BP as a partner.

Reliance will retain operatorship of all the 23 blocks.

It is hoping BP will help it reverse the sagging output from Krishna Godavari-D6 gas fields.

Output at KG-D6 fields has fallen from 60.5 million standard cubic meters per day achieved in March last year to around 50 mmscmd currently.

The $7.2 billion Reliance-BP deal is seen as the biggest FDI into India. Other proposed big transaction — Posco's 12 billion investment announced years ago for a steel plant in Orissa - is yet to take off.

Reliance is the operator in all the 23 blocks while Canadian Niko Resources and UK’s Hardy Oil have minority 10 per cent interest in a few. After the deal, Reliance’ holding in the blocks will come down to 60-70 per cent. Nineteen of the 23 blocks lie off the east coast while two blocks are on land in Assam and Gujarat. — PTI

Mumbai, April 12
Urban households expect inflationary pressure to sustain through 2011 and feel there may not be any softening of food prices, an RBI survey shows.

While year-end 2011 household inflation is expected to be 13.1 per cent, up from the perceived 11.8 per cent in December 2010, daily-wage workers and housewives expected higher inflation rates to continue.

As per the 'Inflation Expectations Survey of Households : December 2010 (Round 22)' conducted by the apex bank, the rise will be mainly on account of movement in food prices.

"Households expect inflation to rise further by... 130 basis points during... next year (13.1 per cent) from the perceived current rate of 11.8 per cent," it said.

While the housewives surveyed said they expect year-end 2011 inflation to be 13.2 per cent, daily wage workers said it would be 13.5 per cent. On the other hand, financial sector employees and self-employed projected inflation to be 12.4 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, by year-end.

“Households’ expectations of general price rise were mainly influenced by movements in food prices,” the survey said.

Overall inflation, as per the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) has been above 8 per cent since February 2010. Food inflation also remained in double-digits for most of 2011, barring a few isolated weeks.

During the October-December period of 2010, the WPI hovered between 8.08 per cent and 9.41 per cent.

Besides, retail inflation for industrial workers, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at between 8.33 per cent and 9.7 per cent during the quarter.

“In the current survey round, household inflation expectations are higher than the official inflation rates. It can be seen that even though the official indicators are moving in the downward direction, expectations are showing an upward swing,” the survey said.

RBI found that 98.6 per cent of the respondents believe that prices will increase. This shows that more urban households have come to the view that inflation is on the upswing than during the previous survey when 96.5 per cent respondents had given such a view.

"In case of one-year ahead price expectations, the percentage of respondents expecting food price increase has gone up. A similar trend is observed for non-food products as well," the survey said.

While 91.7 per cent respondents said they expects food prices to rise during 2011, 83.5 per cent had a similar opinion regarding price rise of non-food items. — PTI

New Delhi, April 12
Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Cementation has started negotiations to acquire Tamil Nadu-based Sree Jayajothi Cements, valued at about Rs 2,000 crore.

“The deal may or may not happen depending upon the valuation... It still hinges on valuation. I am expecting to sell the business for at least Rs 2,000 crore,” T R Kannan, promoter of Jayajothi Group, told PTI over phone.

Reliance Cementation, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, has been in talks with Jayajothi Group to acquire its cement business which has 3.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) installed cement making capacity now.

The proposed acquisition, if happens, will help Reliance Cementation to make a ready-made entry into cement industry.

Jayajothi Cements sells its produce in the four southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala under the brand name of ‘Jayajothi’.

“We have proved our capacity (to Reliance). Now, it is up to Reliance to take the call,” Kannan, who is also the Managing Director of Jayajothi Cements, said.

According to a recent report by rating agency Fitch, the domestic cement industry was expected to add around 68 million tonnes capacity by FY'13 taking the total to 392.8 mtpa. The domestic consumption is likely to be 267 MT by then, leading to squeezed profitability of the cement makers. However, for the Southern region the demand-supply gap will remain in the immediate future, it said.

Jayajothi Group has business interests in textiles with an existing capacity of two lakh spindles and has presence in areas like public transportation, education and windmill. For the year ended March 31, 2010, the Group had recorded over Rs 300 crore overall revenue.

Jayajothi Cements was incorporated as a public limited company in December, 2006 with the aim to develop, construct and operate cement manufacturing facility.

The company put up a greenfield integrated cement making facility in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh with a combined clinkerisation capacity of 2 mtpa and cement grinding capacity of 3.2 mtpa. ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani had announced Group's foray into the cement business in 2009 and spelt out Group’s plan of setting up plants with an aggregate capacity of 20 million tonnes per annum at a cost of nearly Rs 10,000 crore over the next five years.

Reliance Cementation has already signed an MoU with the Maharashtra Government to set up a 5 mtpa cement plant in Yavatmal at an investment outlay of Rs 2,250 crore. This is in addition to the MoUs the company has already signed with the Governments of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat — PTI

Gurgaon, April 12
The Oberoi Group today announced the opening of The Oberoi, Gurgaon. The new property is next-door to the group’s premium hotel, The Trident.

“The two hotels interconnected so that the guests staying at one can freely walk down to the other to have a first-hand feel,” said Arjun Oberoi, the chief planning officer of the group, while addressing the media.

“We are pleased to present The Oberoi, Gurgaon, a hotel that offers the highest standards of luxury and hospitality. A number of Oberoi hotels have been consistently recognised as the best in the world. I am confident that The Oberoi, Gurgaon, will continue this tradition,” said PRS Oberoi, chairman, Oberoi Group.

A Press hand-out circulated at the launch stated that PRS Oberoi had no plans to retire or step down as chairman and CEO of EIH and the Oberoi group, as indicated in certain media reports.

The assertion was endorsed by Vikram Oberoi, the joint managing director and COO of the group. The Oberoi group, founded in 1934, operates 32 hotels, resorts and cruisers under the luxury brand Oberoi and five-star brand Trident in India, Egypt, Mauritius, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The group is also engaged in flight catering, managing airport restaurants, travel and tour services, car rentals and corporate air charters.

A 15-minute drive from the Delhi international airport, The Oberoi, Gurgaon, has an abundance of space with serene reflection pools and landscaped gardens.

Nagpur, April 12
The Income Tax department has refunded as much as Rs 72,000 crore to tax payers across the country in 2009-10, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sudhir Chandra said here.

“The Income Tax department has improved its tax refund rate and Rs 72,000 crore have been refunded to tax payers in the fiscal year 2009-10 against Rs 57,000 in the previous financial year,” Chandra said addressing the 63rd outgoing batch of Indian Revenue Services (IRS), here yesterday at the National Academy of Direct Taxes.

Chandra said the tax collection has gone up rapidly and this fiscal which ended on March 31, 2011, the booty was to the tune of Rs 4.50 lakh crore against a target of Rs 4.46 lakh crore which was revised from Rs 4.30 lakh crore.

The issue of delayed refunds was not a healty trend and was tarnishing the department's image. Hence, it has cleared 78,00,000 refund cases in the process, he claimed.

Union Minister of State for Railways K H Munniappa's son Narsimha Raju was among the passouts.

Deepika Mohan was awarded the coveted Finance Minister's Gold Medal for best all round performance. There were 123 officer-trainees from 23 different states.

Uttar Pradesh topped the list with the highest number of 26 trainees, followed by Tamil Nadu (17), Bihar (14) and Maharashtra (8).— PTI

New Delhi, April 12
Amid controversy over leakage of telephonic conversations involving top industrialists, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others, the Finance Ministry has asked the DoT to enquire into the conduct of telecom operators and identify individuals involved in it.

"DoT (Department of Telecommunications) will have to conduct a further enquiry to establish leakage of the telephonic intercepts in the end of telecom service providers, to identify actual individuals who are involved in this," Finance Ministry said in a communication to Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar.

The communication follows enquiry by a two-member committee set up by the Finance Ministry to enquire into the leakage of tapes which found their way to media and generated controversy.

According to sources, more than 200 employees of Radia owned Vaishnavi group of firms have exercised the option of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) to switch their operators from Bharti Airtel to other service providers like Vodafone or Tata DoCoMo.

MNP allows subscribers to change their service provider while retaining the same number.

In its report to the government, the two-member committee has said that the issue of leakage of telephone intercepts needs to be further probed by the DoT and requested for an immediate action.

The DoT has sought "necessary details" from the Finance Ministry to take action in this regard.

"In the absence of details of intecepts of telephones which have leaked and the context in which enquiry is to be made, it may be difficult to enquire into the aspect. Hence, you are requested to send the necessary details to take further action on the issue," the DoT said in its reply to the Finance Ministry. — PTI

Chandigarh, April 12
A majority of Punjab’s industry is in small and medium scale, but they still have to pay higher rate of interest on loans (as amount taken on loan is smaller), cash credit limit for working capital is not enough, and banks are not following the loan settlement policy.

These points were brought out during a recent meeting of state-level inter-institutional committee and empowered committee of SMEs.

During the meeting, convened by the regional office of RBI, officers from the Industries department of Punjab said that the biggest problem faced by MSMEs in the state was higher rate of interest charged from them by the banks. Large industrial houses get loans at much lower rates of interest.

Principal Secretary, Industries, Punjab, S S Channy said banks were charging 12- 15 per cent interest on loans advanced to micro and small enterprises, compared to 9 per cent for textile majors. “Efforts should be made to remove this anomaly. Also, the lead bank in each district can set up a facilitation desk at each of the district common service centres, which can provide financial advisory services to the industry in that district,” he said.

He added that though the cash credit limit of a loanee should be 20 per cent of the projected sale figure of approved project report, banks were not willing to raise these for the MSMEs.

“We have received a feed back that banks are also not implementing the loan settlement policy. Even the RBI policy of giving collateral free loans up to Rs 10 lakh is not being implemented by many banks. At least three Ludhiana based industrial associations have given us representation that this policy is not being followed by most banks,” he said.

It was also pointed out that the banks were not willing to finance cluster development projects.

“Though the state is government is actively promoting these projects, banks are not encouraging these and even hesitate to fund the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) created for each of the industrial clusters. The banks should offer a different product for these cluster development projects, which will help promote industrial growth of each of these clusters,” added Channy.

New Delhi, April 12
The Finance Ministry will soon unveil the simpler income tax return form ‘Sugam’, which is aimed at reducing compliance burden on small businessmen and professionals.

“Sugam is being examined by the Law Ministry and will be notified soon,” a Revenue Department official said.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget speech for 2011-12 had announced the new simplified return form ‘Sugam’ to reduce the compliance burden of small taxpayers who fall within the scope of presumptive taxation.

The official said the new form is in line with the government's effort to make filing of returns simpler and user friendly.

The filing of return for individual salaried people has already been simplified significantly with introduction of SARAL-II form. This has enabled individuals to enter relevant details in a simple format in only two pages.

Presumptive taxation involves the use of indirect means to ascertain tax liability, which differ from the usual rules based on the taxpayer's accounts.

Under India’s presumptive taxation, person carrying on business will not be required to get his accounts audited if the annual total sales, turnover or gross receipts is less than Rs 60 lakh. The limit was increased by Mukherjee in 2010-11 Budget from Rs 40 lakh.

The presumptive tax limit in case of professionals was increased to Rs 15 lakh from Rs 10 lakh.

New Delhi, April 6
Even as Intelligence agencies confirm the contention of corporate lobbyist and PR firm Vaishnavi’s CEO Niira Radia that many of her telephonic conversations , tapped by the government and leaked to the media, were indeed doctored, the government continues to maintain studied silence on the issue.

The infamous Radia tapes form part of the evidence in the 2G spectrum allocation scam being probed by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, a Joint Parliamentary Committee and the CBI. While the government does not appear unduly concerned with the leakage and the doctoring of the tapes, Intelligence agencies claim to know how it was done and by whom.

Sources told The Tribune that the Radia-bashing exercise began as a ‘pen-drive’ operation launched by a rival lobbyist handling ‘public affairs and media’ in a corporate firm having business rivalry with the Tatas and Mukesh Ambani groups.

A large number of pen-drives, first containing a ‘summary’ and later ‘selected’ tapes, were distributed among politicians, media persons and bureaucrats.

Initially, Intelligence Bureau sources said, the aim of this operation was to ‘discredit’ Radia and use her name to hit industrialists Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani and former Minister Raja to create a smokescreen to shield some powerful corporate world names in the 2G scam. Once it picked up momentum and caught public attention, it was propelled by ‘various players’ to destabilise the Manmohan Singh government, they claimed.

Ironically, the operation back fired and brought the ‘bosses of the plotters’ under the CBI and the PAC scanner.

When contacted, Radia refused to say anything except that ‘God is with me!?

The government has told the Supreme Court that the Income Tax Department had begun tapping Radia's telephone on a ‘complaint? received by the Finance Ministry, alleging that she had built a business empire of Rs. 300 crore in nine years, and that she was acting as a spy of foreign intelligence agencies.

Following the Home Ministry’s permission, the I-T department’s investigation wing in Jhandewalan recorded Radia’s telephonic conversations for 180 days: from August 20, 2008, onwards for 60 days and from October 19 for 60 days. Later, on May 8, 2009, a fresh order for putting her phone on surveillance from May 11 for 60 days was given.

Intelligence sources claim that many tapes do appear to have been ‘edited’ as ‘conversations’ at some places is not coherent and words seem to be missing. Also, they suspect that all conversations ‘may not have been tapped officially.’

Sources in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign espionage agency, corroborated IB’s findings and said, “We did not have Radia on our radar.”

The intelligence agencies have zeroed in on a number of persons who played a role in bringing (and circulating) the Radia tapes into the ‘public domain’.

“Never before, had any government department undertaken such a long phone tapping, let alone leaking them wholesale,? the IB sources said commenting that “It looks as if someone had left the tap open by mistake while leaving home, but in this case, it seems that ‘the tap’ was left open deliberately, clearly indicating that powerful private lobbies used the government system and the official machinery was ready to be used.”

Hyderabad, April 12
Farmers in Andhra Pradesh can now use an electronic platform to sell agricultural produce and free themselves from the clutches of middlemen at market yards.

In a novel initiative to improve efficiency in marketing, the state government will introduce online trading in agricultural produce. A new legislation, amending Agricultural Produce and Livestock Markets Act of 1966, was passed by the Assembly recently, facilitating e-trading.

Farmers can individually or through a government agency sell agricultural produce through the Internet and on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The state government will provide a 'spot-trading platform'

through electronic commodity exchanges to provide transparent e-market to reduce the marketing cost of intermediaries and provide marketing efficiency and play the middleman's role between the seller and buyer and have a choice to trade online through commodity exchanges registered with the forward commission in the state.

The e-trading would provide an organised and structured market place with facilities like risk-free and hassle-free purchase and sale of notified agricultural produce, officials of the agriculture department said. Such electronic exchanges provide customised solutions to problems faced by farmers, traders, processors, exporters, importers, arbitrators, investors and the general public relating to marketing, storing, warehousing and financing.

The existing commission agents and traders, besides providing their services at the local agricultural market yards, can also participate in online trading to have access to the agricultural produce across the country by registering themselves on the electronic platforms.

The government will issue licenses for participating in e-trading and set up e-market platform for conducting trading in notified agri-products.

Under the e-trading system, farmers will store their produce in designated godowns and get the product certified. "e-trading will be done based on the quantity and quality mentioned in the certificate by registered traders. It is a risk-free and hassle-free purchase and sale of notified agricultural produce and the farmer will be assured the price of that day," the state marketing secretary KR Kishore said.

The government would licence the National Spot Exchange to operate in the state as an online trading platform between farmers and traders. The farmers will be given a choice to either sell their produce at conventional agricultural markets or through e-trading exchange.

New Delhi, April 12
Tata group chief Ratan Tata has said that his only regret was not being 20 years younger in age, but he does not crave to stay on at the top of the country's biggest corporate empire.

"I just feel its been an exciting time. My only regret is that I am not 20 years younger, because I think India is going through a very exciting period in its history," Tata said in a televised interview to CNN International.

Asked whether he would like to stay on, the 73-year-old Tata immediately replied in negative and clarified: "No No, I said I wish to be 20 years younger, not that I would stay on for 20 years." Tata is scheduled to retire as Tata group chief in December 2012, when he turns 75, and a search panel was formed in August last year to find his successor. — PTI

New Delhi, April 12
Bank of America has given shares worth nearly Rs 11 lakh to Mukesh Ambani as part of annual retainer fee to the billionaire industrialist, who joined the US banking giant's board last month.

Ambani may get a total of over Rs 1 crore of annual compensation in cash and stocks, going by the bank's director compensation policy.

However, the bank has not disclosed its specific director fees for Ambani, chief of energy giant Reliance Industries.

Emailed queries sent to Bank of America and Reliance Industries remained unanswered on what would be Ambani's exact remuneration for his role as a director.

Ambani leads one of India's biggest corporate groups with presence spanning across energy, retail and telecom businesses and plans underway for financial services entry.

As Chairman and Managing Director of RIL, Ambani was paid Rs 15 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2010.

He decided to take a lower salary than his eligibility of Rs 39.36 crore, as per shareholders' approval, to reflect "his desire to set a personal example for moderation in managerial compensation levels." The salary figure for the fiscal ended March 31, 2011, is not yet known.

Bank of America appointed Ambani as an independent director on its board on March 16. — PTI