New Delhi, July 20
In a decision which will bring some cheer to the beleaguered telecom sector, the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Home Minister P. Chidambaram decided to allow telecom operators companies to pay for spectrum they would win in the forthcoming auction in a staggered manner.

The panel, which met here Friday morning, also took a decision on the base price for pan-India 2G spectrum licence that the operators would bid for in the auction, but the recommendation for the same would be forwarded to the cabinet for it to take the final call as was mandated while reconstituting the high powered panel after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar chose to recuse himself from it.

Reports emerging from the Sanchar Bhawan suggested the EGoM had decided to keep the base price in the range of Rs 14,000 crore to 17,000 crore. The final decision on the matter will be announced only by the cabinet.

Issues like spectrum usage charge and terms of payment were also taken up at the meeting, and like the case of the reserve price, the recommendations would be forwarded to the cabinet for a final decision.

“The panel, which discussed three specific issues, will make a specific recommendation on each of them to the cabinet so that the latter takes a final decision”, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters after the meetin, the second meeting of the reconstituted EGoM.

However, sources said the key demand of making payments in parts has been accepted, but no final decision has been on spectrum pricing policy. It is yet to be decided if the incumbent player will have to pay for the spectrum on market determined price respectively or not.

Reports suggested according the panel’s decision on staggered payment, while CDMA companies will pay 25 per cent of the airwave payments as a first instalment, GSM operators will pay 35 per cent of the airwave payments as a first instalment.

Reports added both GSM and CDMA players would get a two-year moratorium on the payments after the first instalment and the rest of the payment due is to be paid in 10 equal instalments.

This was one of the key demands of the telecom operators given the financial pressure they are facing.

However, the committee but did not decide on the one-time fee to be paid by existing players like Bharti Airtel to migrate to the new regime.

At its last meeting, the EGoM had asked the department of telecom to prepare a matrix of reserve price in the range of Rs. 12,000 crore to Rs. 18,000 crore and calculate its impact analysis in the sector on the basis of spectrum usage charge in the range of three to 8%.

Reports suggested the panel has recommended the base auction price as a percentage of net present value of the spectrum. The EGoM will send two options to the cabinet.

New Delhi, July 20
Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries posted a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 4473 crore versus Rs 5661 crore for the first quarter of the financial year 2012-13, down 21 per cent year-on-year.

Even though this is the third consecutive drop in quarterly profit, reported by the company, it beat street estimates. A poll conducted earlier had expected a net profit of Rs 4,250 crore.

According to Mukesh Ambani, the profits for the first quarter rose on the back of volume growth in the refining business.

"The company has commenced the next phase of capex in refining & petrochemical business," he said.

The sales for the first quarter rose to Rs 91,875 crore versus Rs 81,081 crore, up 13% year-on-year. The revenue from petrochemicals stood at Rs 21,839 crore, while the refining revenues stood at Rs 85,383 crore. The exports for the first quarter were reported at $9.8 billion.

The company's GRM for June 2012 quarter rose to $7.6 per barrel as against $7.2 per barrel.

Sales of the oil & gas major increased to Rs 91,875 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, as compared to Rs 81,018 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Shares in Reliance Industries closed at Rs 722.65, down 0.70 per cent on the BSE. They touched an intraday high of Rs 728.85 and a low of Rs 717.45.

Commenting on the results, Shubham Agarwal, associate vice president & senior analyst, technical equities at Motilal Oswal Securities said Reliance Industries has been a huge underperformer for past many months but has a characteristic of mean reversion.

"The Reliance Industries stock has been trading in the lower band of the range and on the short term chart has formed a traditional inverted head and shoulder pattern. The neckline of the pattern is placed at Rs 745 and the breakout from the same can activate the pattern target of Rs 820. Support is seen at Rs 702 and risk/reward to long term seem favourable," he said. — Agencies

New Delhi, July 20
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has announced a mega event, Invest North, to revive investments in the eight states of northern India. CII Northern Region will organize the first ever Invest North conclave in partnership with state governments in the National Capital Region on Nov 3-4.

Planned as an initiative to showcase the investment potential in Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Chandigarh, CII said both overseas and domestic investors will participate in the conclave. This follows on the model of successful investor meets organized in other parts of India, such as ‘Emerging Kerala’, ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ and ‘Global Investors Meet Karnataka’.

Unveiling the summit, Ajay S Shriram, vice-president CII, chairman, Invest North 2012 and chairman & senior MD of DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd, said ‘Invest North’ aims to showcase investment potential, enhance investment climate and attract investments in the eight northern states.

Malvinder Mohan Singh, chairman, CII Northern Region and Executive Chairman, Fortis Healthcare Ltd, said , “Though the northern states have vast potential and offer immense investment opportunities from traditional sectors like agro-products and textiles to emerging sectors like biotech and IT, they have lost their competitive edge in recent times to other more proactive states in western and southern India”. The share of northern states in cumulative FDI inflows (from April 2000 to April 2012) stands at a mere 28 %. Within that, the bulk of FDI has been limited to the NCR.

According to CII, north India is home to 7% of the world’s population, contributes 25% to India’s GDP and accounts for 31% of India’s agri GDP. Five northern states and the union territory of Chandigarh enjoy higher per capita income than the national average.

Further, industrial corridors across Delhi, U.P., Haryana and Rajasthan are proposed along the Delhi Mumbai railway freight corridor. About 33.4 million students from north India are expected to enter higher and vocational education by 2016.

The potential sectors for investment in the north are infrastructure, manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture and agri business, tourism, IT & ITeS.

Richard Rekhy, chairman CII northern regional committee on economic affairs & taxation and head of advisory, KPMG India, highlighted key advantages of the northern region. “The state governments of Himachal, Haryana, Delhi, U.P., Rajasthan, and J&K have confirmed their participation in this initiative, while discussions are on with Punjab and Uttarakhand state governments. The United States and Australia have also confirmed their participation. Some of the other countries that we are looking at include Britain, Germany, Singapore, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Israel”, he stated.

New Delhi, July 20
The Central Board of Direct Taxes has issued a notification exempting salaried employees with income up to Rs 500,000 from the requirement of filing income tax returns for the assessment year 2012-13.

The principal condition to avail of this exemption is that the employee has earned only salary income and income from savings bank account and the annual interest earned from savings bank account is less than Rs 10,000. In addition, the employee should have reported his PAN to the employer and income from interest on savings bank account.

The exemption is applicable only if all the following conditions are fulfilled:

The employee has earned only salary income and income from savings bank account(s) and the annual interest earned from savings bank account(s) is less than Rs 10,000.

Mumbai, July 20
Higher loan-loss provisions by banks and greater "sacrifice" by founders or controlling shareholders of troubled companies are among the tighter norms for loan restructuring recommended by a panel appointed by the Reserve Bank of India.

Banks should set aside 5% of total assets for standard loans that are restructured, up from 2% currently, while provisions for loans that are already restructured should be increased to 5% in a phased manner over two years, the report said.

The RBI had set up a working group last October to review the guidelines on debt restructuring of loans by banks and financial institutions and suggest changes taking into account the best international practices and accounting standards.

Under corporate debt restructuring, banks ease payment terms for corporate borrowers by extending payment tenure, lowering rate of interest or converting debt into equity without classifying the loan as bad.

The RBI's working group has suggested that conversion of debt into preference shares should be done as a last resort and only for listed companies, while classification of such loans as bad or nonperforming will be considered after two years.

Lenders to Kingfisher Airlines are saddled with a fifth of the ailing carrier's stake after they converted part of the debt into equity as part of its loans restructuring. Kingfisher shares have fallen below their face value, plunging more than 90 percent from their 2007 peak, forcing banks to book investment losses.

The report suggested the need for higher amount of "sacrifice" by controlling shareholders or promoters when large loan accounts are restructured.

"As stipulating personal guarantee will ensure promoters' 'skin in the game' or commitment to the restructuring package, obtaining the personal guarantee of promoters be made a mandatory requirement in all cases of restructuring," the report said.

It recommended that in cases where the approved restructuring package could not be implemented, banks should assess the situation early and use exit options with a view to minimising losses.

"The terms and conditions of restructuring should inherently contain the principle of carrot and stick," it said, explaining that while restructuring offers incentives for viable accounts, it should have disincentives for nonadherence to the terms of restructuring and underperformance.

Indian banks have drawn flak recently for turning to the Corporate Debt Restructuring Cell, an RBI-approved informal forum of bankers, to avoid classifying a loan as bad. In the year to end-March, Indian banks sought to restructure a record $12 bn in corporate loans through CDR, a 156% jump from the previous year. This excludes billions of dollars in loans restructured outside the official channel, including $4 bn of Air India debt and about $5.5 bn of loans at loss-making SEBs. — Reuters

New Delhi, July 20
Reliance Communications on Friday put on hold the $ 1-1.5 billion initial public offering of its underseas cable unit Flag Telecom in Singapore, in the wake of adverse market conditions. The float was shelved on a day when institutional book building was to close, sources said.

RComm was looking at listing Flag Telecom through a Singapore business trust, Global Telecommunications Infrastructure Trust (GTIT) on the Singapore stock exchange. GTI Trust owns 4 subsea cable systems that carry Internet traffic and data around the globe.

The telecom major had planned to use the proceeds from the Singapore listing of GTI to pare some of its Rs 35,839 crore debts.

Sources said RComm is not in a rush to sell the assets and can afford to wait for positive market conditions, as it has already refinanced its FCCB of $ 1.2 billion in March with long term Chinese loan.

Flag Telecom was acquired by the then undivided Reliance group for $207 million (less than Rs 1,000 cr) in 2003. As part of the telecom portfolio of the erstwhile Reliance group, Flag Telecom later came into the fold of the Anil Ambani-led group after the split between the two Ambani brothers. — PTI