New Delhi, May 16
Industry body CII has taken a stand against the proposal to withdraw the Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme (DEPB) beyond June for exporters. Such an announcement to abruptly withdraw the DEBP Scheme will have a serious blow to the growth momentum achieved in exports in the past few quarters, it has said.

CII has said that there is a need for policy stability to maintain the momentum of export growth and for this the DEPB scheme needs to stay. The Indian export community was deeply perturbed with the news that the DEPB scheme may not be extended beyond June 30, 2011, and exporters can only hope that the government will continue to be sensitive to their needs, CII said.

It said the government’s reasoning for announcing a five-year Foreign Trade Policy was to provide the exporters with a stable policy regime and providing such an environment has been underlined by the relative resilience of the Indian export sector during the economic crisis, and the success of achieving higher than expected export figures of $246 billion in 2010-2011.

The need for stability in the export incentive regime is also necessary given the situation in the post-crisis global economy characterised by over capacity in many countries. Thus, Indian exporters are living in a hyper-competitive environment, with lower and lower margins per unit of exports. Indian exporters are also disadvantaged by relatively higher cost of credit compared to most other emerging economies.

Unlike most other countries, CII said, Indian exporters do not get complete rebate from all taxes they have to pay. For example, taxes paid on electricity and sales tax paid on petrochemical products. It is unlikely that such taxes would be subsumed in the GST.

The NCAER studies have shown that the impact of such state level taxes is between 1.5 and 12 per cent depending on the state in question. Thus, Indian exporters are already bearing an additional component of cost due to exports not being completely zero-rated in India.

New Delhi, May 16
Moderation in prices of food and manufactured items brought inflation marginally down to 8.66 per cent in April but experts feel the recent increase in petrol prices will have implications in the near future.

The government, however, encouraged by decline in inflation during April from 9.04 per cent March, hoped the rate of price rise would continue to moderate in coming months. The inflation data for April does not reflect the steep rise in petrol prices, the highest ever, announced on Saturday.

The 8.66 per cent headline inflation for April, as measured by Wholesale Price Index (WPI), is below RBI’s 9 per cent average inflation projection for the first half of the year.

New Delhi, May 16
The Telecom Ministry may move to cancel 15 new licences, which, it has found to be liable for cancellation due to delayed rollout of network.

Officials at the ministry confirmed that the rollout obligation of a total of just 15 licences with various telecom operators, mainly the new players, were found to have not been met and as such were laible for cancellation. The number has come down from 69 licences recommended by telecom regulator TRAI to be cancelled.

Earlier, the DoT had identified 17 cases fit for sending notices for cancellation of licences on account of delay in network rollout.

In two cases, the DoT found that spectrum was allocated only in few districts of a circle so it was difficult to interpret terms and conditions of a licence which says that 10 per cent of a circle should be covered in the first year. In view of this, two cases have been dropped by the DoT.

Last year, TRAI had recommended to the DoT to cancel 69 telecom licences of five operators, including joint ventures of Telenor-Unitech, Etisalat-Swan and Sistema-Shyam.

Officials said till now DoT had sent 10 notices and rest five were expected to be issued within this week. All these are on account of delay in network rollout.

The cancellations pertain to licences issued in 2007-08 by former Telecom Minister A Raja, who was sacked last year when his ministry was accused of selling licences and spectrum cheaply, possibly costing the government billions of dollars in revenue.

New Delhi, May 16
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), India’s largest FMCG company, has announced the launch of India Water Body, an initiative aimed to drive water security for India by 2030 through public-private partnership (PPP).

Nitin Paranjpe, CEO & managing director, Hindustan Unilever, said, “It is estimated that by 2030, the supply of water in India would be half of the demand for it. This is a crisis that has the potential to derail the economic and social development of the country and impact the health and livelihoods of millions of people across the country. HUL has launched India Water Body to drive water security for the country by 2030.”

The India Water Body will be conducting a nation-wide study to assess the demand-supply gap for water in India. The study will build on the available body of knowledge and engage multiple stakeholders to evolve an India water roadmap enumerating clear priorities and solutions for implementation.

HUL said The India Water Body launch will work towards a systematic long-term approach to drive water security for the nation through the public-private partnership model. This initiative builds on the Sustainable Living Plan launched by Unilever in November 2010. Hindustan Unilever Limited is a subsidiary of Unilever. Water is one of the focus areas identified in the plan.

Water management has been a key focus area for HUL in India across its entire value chain. HUL has consistently reduced water consumption in its operations, helped small-holder farmers to use water judiciously in agriculture and developed product innovations.

The company has been working for more than a decade in the area of water conservation in partnership with NGOs and local communities across the country, in locations which face acute water shortage. HUL has initiated projects in several states in India that will enable us to create capacity towards conserving more than 50 billion litres of water in the next four years (by 2015).

New York, May 16
Nasdaq OMX Group Inc and IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) are withdrawing their bid for rival exchange NYSE Euronext, saying it became clear they would not win approval for the deal from the US Department of Justice's anti-trust division.

NYSE Euronext shares fell nearly 11 per cent in pre-market trading.

Nasdaq and ICE first offered to buy the New York Stock Exchange's parent on April 1, seeking to thwart NYSE Euronext's proposed friendly merger with Deutsche Boerse AG, worth $10.2 billion when it was announced in February.

The NYSE-Deutsche Boerse tie-up is also subject to regulatory scrutiny in Europe and the United States.

Nasdaq and ICE had said earlier this month that they would go directly to NYSE shareholders in a tender offer. NYSE's board twice rejected the $11.1 billion unsolicited bid in favour of its existing deal with Deutsche Boerse.

Nasdaq and ICE's competing offer, worth $11.1 billion last week, would have split NYSE Euronext into two. Nasdaq would have acquired NYSE's equities and equities options business, and ICE would have bought its London-based futures unit, Liffe.

NYSE Euronext shares were down 10.9 per cent at $36.42 in trading before the market opened, while Nasdaq OMX stock fell 2.6 per cent to $26.20. — Reuters

Chandigarh, May 16
Unemployed persons from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in Punjab and Haryana now have a reason to cheer. Pushed by the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) to meet the target for extending them financial help, banks in the region have increased advances to the economically backward section under their Differential Rate of Interest (DRI) scheme.

Data available from the SLBC of Punjab and Haryana shows that total advances under the DRI scheme have increased by Rs 1 crore in Punjab and by a whopping Rs 2.81 crore in Haryana.

The DRI advances are given by the banks to BPL families at 4 per cent rate of interest for engaging them in productive activities so as to improve their financial status. As of date, the DRI advances are extended to families whose total family income is less than Rs 18,000 in a rural area and not exceeding Rs 24,000 in urban and semi-urban areas.

It is after a long time that this scheme for uplifting the economically weaker sections has begun to bear fruit, especially in Haryana. In 2009, public and private sector banks in Haryana could barely manage to lend just 0.01 per cent of the total advances as DRI advances against a target of 1 per cent of total advances.

Even now, banks have not been able to meet their target of advances under DRI scheme (it is just 0.02 per cent in Haryana and 0.13 per cent in Punjab). However, banks have managed to achieve a good growth in this category of priority sector advances.

A senior bank official in PNB informed The Tribune that since Punjab and Haryana are affluent states, it is difficult to meet the target. He added that migrant labourers were eligible to get loans under this scheme because of their low income, but they, too, did not fulfil other criterion.

Shimla, May 16
Bharti Airtel today launched 3G services in the state capital. Sarang Kanade, Chief Operating Officer for the northern region, who launched the service by flagging off a motor bike rally here, said the company had set up 40 3G sites for the small hill town to provide seamless connectivity to the subscribers. He said with over 17 lakh subscribers, it had largest customer base in the state accounting for 37 per cent of the total subscribers and 41 per cent of the total revenue.

The company has come out with a range of flexible tariff plans for 3G services for occasional users starting from Rs 11 per pack to Rs 675 pack for heavy users. He said the 3G services would be extended to all the major towns of the state over the next two months.

BRIEFLY

Glenmark, Sanofi in pact
Mumbai: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals SA, a subsidiary of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited, today said it has out licensed its novel monoclonal antibody, GBR 500, to French drug-maker Sanofi for as much as $613 million. Under the agreement, Glenmark will receive an upfront payment of $50 million, which will be used to repay debt, he said. The net debt of the company an of March 31 stood at Rs 1,900 crore. — PTI

3i Infotech sells US arm
Bangalore: Global information technology company 3i Infotech Limited has signed an agreement to sell its US-based Global Billing and Payments unit, consisting of Regulus Group and J&B Software, to an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management LP for $137 million (Rs 617 crore). The transaction is expected to close within the next 60 days. — PTI

Rupee hits 2-month low
Mumbai: The rupee on Monday tumbled by 29 paise to close at nearly two-month low of 45.15/16 against the US currency, following weakness in equities amid heavy capital outflows and fresh dollar demand despite weak global cues. — PTI

JSW Steel net up 30 pc
Mumbai: JSW Steel on Monday reported a growth of 29.88 per cent in its consolidated net profit at Rs 793.63 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011. Net sales of the company stood at Rs 7,209.35 crore, up 32.49 per cent during the January-March quarter vis-a-vis Rs 5,441.30 crore in the corresponding period of 2009-2010, it said. — PTI

Gold up, silver down
New Delhi: Gold prices recovered by Rs 25 to Rs 22,265 per 10 grams on Monday on a firming global trend, while silver moved down by Rs 1,110 to Rs 53,300 per kg, due to reduced offtake at existing high levels. Traders attributed the rise in the yellow metal's prices to buying by retailers to meet the ongoing marriage season demand along with a firming global trend. — PTI

L&T bags Rs 3,500-cr order
New Delhi: Larsen and Toubro on Monday said it has bagged an order worth Rs 3,500 crore from Chennai-based PPN Power Generating Company Limited to set up a gas-based power plant in Tamil Nadu. "Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has received an order valued at over Rs 3,500 crore from PPN Power Generating Company Limited, promoted by the Apollo Group, for setting up a 3x360-MW gas-based power plant at Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu state," an official statement said. L&T's scope of work includes design, detailed engineering, supply, installation and commissioning of the complete power plant on a turnkey basis. — PTI

Oil firms cut ATF prices
New Delhi: State-owned oil companies on Sunday cut jet fuel price by over 2.9 per cent after international oil rates cooled off from two-year high. Oil companies reduced ATF (air turbine fuel) price by Rs 1,766 per kilolitre to Rs 58,794 per kilolitre in Delhi, an official of IOC said. — PTI