New Delhi, January 17
Gold and silver are set to become more expensive as the government has changed the duty structure on precious metals from specific to value-linked, which will enable the exchequer to rake in an additional Rs 600 crore during the remaining months of the fiscal.

The ad valorem rates of excise and customs on precious metals like gold, silver and platinum have come into effect from today, said a government notification. Diamonds, too, will now attract an import duty of 2 per cent.

As per the changes, customs and excise duty will now be levied on the value of the precious metals instead of a fixed amount, meaning that the incidence of duty will move up with the rise in prices of the goods, thereby making them more expensive.

According to the notification, the import duty on gold has been fixed at 2 per cent of the value, instead of the earlier rate of Rs 300 per 10 grams. On silver, the import duty has been pegged at 6 per cent, as against Rs 1,500 per kg earlier.

With respect to excise, the duty on gold has been fixed at 1.5 per cent of the value, as against the earlier fixed rate of Rs 200 per 10 grams. Silver will attract excise of 4 per cent, as compared to a fixed duty earlier of Rs 1,000 per kg.

"The old rates were fixed 4-5 years ago. In the last few years, prices have increased substantially so the change has been made to bring duties in line with market prices," said Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman SK Goel.

According to Finance Ministry estimates, "The increase in the duty is expected to fetch an additional Rs 500-600 crore for the balance fiscal year." Gold prices firmed up by Rs 35 to Rs 27,925 per 10 grams in the bullion market today, while silver gained Rs 575 to Rs 52,725 per kg today. — PTI 

New Delhi, January 17
Feeling the pinch of the rising dollar and input costs, two car majors in the country today hiked the prices of their models between 0.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) and General Motors India increased the prices of various models by up to Rs 17,000.

While MSIL has hiked prices of its vehicles across models, except for entry-level sedan DZire, by between 0.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent, General Motors increased the cost of their cars between 0.5 per cent and 1.75 per cent.

For MSIL, the increase translates into a minimum hike of Rs 2,400 on the SX4 sedan and a maximum of Rs 17,000 on the diesel variant of its Swift hatchback.

MSIL said the price hike was effective from yesterday. The company had stated it would hike the prices of its models to offset the impact of rising input costs and foreign exchange fluctuation.

Before the hike, the SX4 sedan was priced between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 9.11 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), while the Swift diesel was available at prices ranging from Rs 5.27 lakh to Rs 6.47 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for different variants.

The company's best-selling Alto model will also become dearer by Rs 4,000 vis-a-vis the current price tag of between Rs 2.32 lakh and Rs 3.31 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The company has not touched the price of the DZire sedan as it will launch a new version next month.

GM India has also increased prices for models, including the Spark, Beat, Cruze and Tavera, translating into an increase ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 15,000.

New Delhi, January 17
With the government looking to contain the fiscal deficit and PSU divestment not working out, PSU dividends seems to be something the government is looking at seriously.

Last year, it earned Rs 26,000 crore from PSU dividends and ONGC was the highest dividend paying company at Rs 5,500 crore, says a SMC Global research report.

The report says that the major issue that is on the radar of the government is fiscal deficit management. The government has made several attempts such as PSU disinvestment and PSU buyback programmes to increase the revenue collection helping the fiscal deficit management.

However, many of these efforts have not yielded the kind of results that were originally anticipated. Naturally, the government is now having to find new ways to augment the revenues.

The report says one way is increasing the dividend receipts from PSUs. For the financial year 2010-11, the aggregate dividend given by PSUs to the government was to the tune of about Rs 26,057 crore.

During the last financial year, the largest dividend to the government came from ONGC to the tune of Rs 5,550 crore.

There were about 7 PSUs who gave dividends of more than Rs 1,000 crore to the government during the financial year 2010-11. This includes ONGC, NTPC, Coal India, IOC, NMDC, SBI and BHEL.

For the current financial year of 2011-12, these large PSUs assume additional significance, as government may be expecting larger dividend from them.

The other big dividend paying PSUs include SAIL, Oil India, NHPC, Power Grid, GAIL, REC, PFC, PNB, Bank of Baroda, Neyveli Lignite, Canara Bank, SJVN, BPCL, Indian Bank, Bank of India, HPCL, Union Bank, Nalco, IDBI Bank, IOB, UCO Bank, Andhra Bank, OBC, Corporation Bank, Allahabad Bank, SCI, Syndicate Bank, Engineers India, Container Corporation, among others.

New Delhi, January 17
Telecom operator Reliance Communications (RCom) has tied up with three Chinese banks for refinancing the outstanding FCCBs (Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds) worth Rs 6,125 crore.

In a statement issued here, RCom said, “Reliance Communications has tied up refinancing for maturity value of outstanding FCCBs of #$1,182 million (Rs 6,125 crore)”.

The refinancing is being funded by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Development Bank (CDB), Export Import Bank of China (EXIM), and other banks, it said.

Following the announcement, shares of the company jumped 5.61 per cent to an early high of Rs. 91.30 on the BSE.

The company also said it would benefit from extended loan maturity of seven years and attractive interest cost of about 5 per cent.

The loan proceeds would be used for refinancing the entire redemption amount of FCCBs which are due for redemption on March 1, 2012.

FCCBs are bonds that are issued in currencies different from the issuing company’s domestic currency. 

Beijing, January 17
China's economy appears to have taken a hit in the face of global financial crisis and falling exports, registering a single digit growth rate at 9.2 per cent for the first time in three decades, with projections for the coming year also suggesting a decline.

While the growth rate of 9.2 per cent in 2011 was better than the government's target of 8 per cent,it was down from the 10.4 per cent growth in 2010.

The fourth quarter of the last year registered 8.9 per cent, which is the slowest in the last 10 quarters or two and a half years, Ma Jiantang, Chief of China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told the media here today.

Chinese economy had managed to retain its decades of double-digit growth till 2010. But it started slowing down since, growing by 9.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2011, compared to 9.5 per cent in the second quarter and 9.7 per cent in the first quarter.

The expansion of China's GDP is further expected to come down to around 8.5 per cent in 2012, according to official projections.

The financial slowdown and contraction in the West has hit the robust growth rates in the emerging economies as well.

India's economic growth too is expected to grow at 7 per cent in the current fiscal, down from last year's 8.5 per cent, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conceding that the country was passing through difficult times.

According to preliminary statistics, China's GDP reached 47.16 trillion yuan ($7.26 trillion) in 2011, Ma said. — PTI 

Mumbai, January 17
India can return to 9 per cent growth if the government removes uncertainties in policy-making and go for early implementation of some of the long pending tax reforms, a senior World Bank official said today.

"The worst thing for investment is not knowing what is coming next. And if that can be tackled by the government, it is going to restart the process of 8-9 per cent growth," World Bank's Chief Economist for South Asia Region Kalpana Kochhar told reporters on the sidelines of a CII event.

Kochhar suggested early implementation of long pending reforms like the Goods and Services Tax and the Direct Tax Code, and reduction in subsidies to control the expenditure.

Vijay Kelkar, chairman of NSE, blamed 'bad policies' for low growth and its impact on employment generation.

Uncertainties in policies result in investors staying off a country, he said and pointed out to the retrospective nature of tax laws. Besides, he added that non-conformity of contracts added to the constraints faced by investors.

"That's not the way to encourage investment, not the way to encourage growth because you are increasing cost of risk capital. Nothing hurts investor (more) than not knowing what his tax burden is going to be," he said.

Due to global problems like slowdown in the euro-zone and domestic issues like widening fiscal deficit, depreciating currency, inflation and the consequent rate hikes by the Reserve Bank, the government has been forced to revise downwards its FY'12 growth forecast. — PTI