Mumbai, July 23
Essar Oil Ltd said Monday it has tied up Rs 5,000 crore loan to meet most of its Rs 6,169 crore sales tax dues to the Gujarat government.

"Essar Oil is confident that with this facility tied up it will be in a position to meet its entire payment obligations," the company said in a press statement.

"A new credit facility from domestic banks to provide a credit line of up to Rs 5,000 crore to meet its sales tax liability of Rs 6,169 crore" has been tied up, it said.

"The company continues to pursue the matter of repayment schedule of its sales tax liability both legally and with the Gujarat state government," the statement said.

The Supreme Court had in January said Essar Oil was not entitled to defer payment of sales tax, an incentive offered by the Gujarat government for the company to start production at its Vadinar refinery in the state by August 15, 2003.

Since the deadline was missed, the company lost right to defer sales tax payment by 17 years.

To recover the dues, the Gujarat government had on July 9 attached three bank accounts of Essar Oil in Jamnagar. There after the company approached the Supreme Court, which asked Essar Oil to deposit Rs 1,000 crore out of the sales tax dues by July 31, 2012.

Essar Oil managing director & chief executive officer Lalit Gupta stated: "The new loan facility will enable Essar Oil Ltd to meet its sales tax liability”.

“Our lenders have continued to be very supportive of the business, which remains well placed given the demand for high value fuels both in India and internationally”, he added. — PTI

Ludhiana, July 23
After Switzerland agreed to provide details of secret bank accounts of individuals sought by India even on the basis of limited information, India and Singapore have now decided to share information on suspected tax evaders and cases pertaining to “black” money next week. The exchange of information is a part of the bilateral financial enforcement cooperation between the two countries.

Industry honchos in Ludhiana are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping their names do not figure in the list of suspected tax evaders.

A top-level team of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) will meet officials of the CBDT and the income tax department to interchange data on a number of cases of “black” money that India suspects is routed from the banking and financial institutions of the Southeast Asian country. The Indian authorities will also hand over a list of some specific cases they are probing to the Singapore government.

The IRAS team is also expected to take take up issues related to a number of official requests related to classified taxation information that Indian tax authorities sent to them.

New Delhi, July 23
The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex on Monday dropped by 281 points to nearly one-month low of 16,877.35 as global markets roiled in debt problems resurfacing in Spain over the weekend.

Global stocks crashed after reports said Spain's Murcia region could apply to access government's funds within days of another region, Valencia, planning to take the same route.

Later in the day, Bank of Spain said its economy contracted by 0.4% in April-June period, after slumping by 0.3% in January-March period.

After opening lower, the BSE benchmark index closed with a loss of 281.09 points, or 1.64%, to end below the 17,000 mark as all sectoral indices, led by metal and realty, suffered losses.

Of the 30-share Sensex, 28 stocks led by Maruti and Sterlite that lost over 5.5% each, closed lower as across-the-board selling was seen. Private banks HDFC Bank and ICICI bank shed nearly 2% each while ITC, Infosys and RIL lost around one per cent each.

Metal stocks, including Hindalco and Tata Steel, also ended lower on reports that the Chinese economy — the biggest metals consumer — may slow further in third quarter.

"The selling pressure was triggered following the weakness in the global markets induced by renewed economic worries related to Spain," said Nidhi Sarswat, senior research analyst at Bonanza Portfolio.

The 50-share NSE index Nifty lost 87.15 points, or 1.67% to 5,117.95. — PTI

New Delhi, July 23
Confederation of Indian Industry president Adi Godrej said Monday there are fears that the violence at the Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar would dent the country’s image which might impact investors’ impressions of India in terms of safety of investments.

Godrej strongly condemned the recent violence that erupted at the Maruti plant at Manesar resulting in the death of a senior company official and injuring more than 90 employees including some foreigners. He added an incident of this nature was most unexpected especially since a dialogue was on between the management and the workers on unresolved issues.

Godrej said CII strongly believed any disputes between the management and the workers must be settled through discussion and dialogue in a peaceful environment within the rubric of law.

On industrial relations issues, it is imperative that an environment of trust is fostered. The management, workers and state government have responsibilities, which need to be discharged with sincerity, he said.

CII said it was also unfortunate that such an incident took place in Haryana which is considered to be an investor friendly state. CII has asked its government to quickly investigate the matter and punish all those who are responsible for the unfortunate turn of events at Maruti’s Manesar plant.

“Swift and decisive action would help improve investors’ confidence. It would also help create an impression that the law enforcement authorities in Haryana won’t allow recurrence of such events in the future. Industry will work hard to ensure that the positive environment in the state isn’t affected by one incident of industrial unrest”, Godrej added.

New Delhi, July 23
Pointing out to the decline in overall business confidence, industry body Assocham said on Monday India Inc, which is braving a negative perception, may not be able to hold on to bottomlines unless "good signals" emerge on the policy front from the UPA government led by PM Manmohan Singh.

Ahead of the RBI’s July 31 monetary policy review, the chamber also made a case for reduction in interest rates for pick up in the economy. It said while corporates braved a negative perception about the economy and managed to hold on to growth both in net profits and total income in the June quarter of 2012-13, the future was uncertain.

"While it goes to the credit of corporate India to hold on their bottomline, though at a lower pace, it would be risky to assume that they will manage to do well in the future as headwinds are growing stronger," Assocham president Rajkumar Dhoot said.

He said a recent analysis showed overall business confidence had slipped in the last six months. "Things may improve somewhat if good signals emerge from the government and the US”, he added.

Assocham said a balance-sheet analysis of companies across different sectors like financial services, IT and automobiles show the firms have managed to handle the slowdown differently.

For instance, it said the average net profit growth in the IT companies which have so far announced their first quarter results, ranges between 25% and 30%, which is a good going given the slowdown in the US and recession in several European economies.

Referring to banks, the chamber added there are several reasons like demand slowdown and lower margins for nonperforming assets. However, the single most important factor for rising NPAs and the desperation of the companies to seek corporate debt restructuring is the high interest rate regime, it said. — Agencies

Mumbai/New Delhi, July 23
Foreign investors have bought a net of Rs 9,432 crore (US $1.71 billion) in Indian equities so far this month, according to provisional data, after selling in each of the previous three months. The inflows so far in July have surpassed the Rs 8,380 crore net purchases in March.

Foreign investors have bought a net Rs 51,425 crore in Indian stocks so far this year, compared to their Rs 2,714 crore of net sales in 2011.

A Bank of America-Merrill Lynch survey shows that foreign investors have increased their exposure to Indian equities but still remain underweight, while remaining overweight on China despite reducing their exposure.

The benchmark index, Sensex rose 7.5% in June, but is down 3.2% in July so far.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex extended intraday losses on Monday as sentiment turned bearish in global markets on concerns of economic instability in Spain and Greece. All the sectoral indices were in the red with metals, capital goods, realty and power leading the decline.

At 02:10 pm, the 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange index was at 16,926.74, down 231.70 points or 1.35 per cent. It touched a high of 17,047.73 and a low of 16,902.95 in trade today.

The National Stock Exchange Nifty was at 5,129.25, down 75.85 points or 1.46 per cent. It touched a high of 5,164.20 and a low of 5,124 in trade on Monday. The BSE Midcap Index was down 1.20 per cent and the BSE Smallcap Index fell 1.02 per cent. — Agencies

Mumbai, July 23
Larsen & Toubro Ltd, India's top construction and engineering company, said it expects sustained revenue growth in the medium term on a strong order book and economic reforms attracting capital inflows after its quarterly profit met street estimates.

The engineering conglomerate said net profit rose 15.8% to Rs 8.64 billion in April-June from a year earlier as it won major contracts in the infrastructure and power sectors. Sales rose 26% to Rs 119.56 billion.

"Some of the sectors in which we operate, especially transportation and buildings and factories, have seen some momentum," chief financial officer R. Shankar Raman told reporters on Monday. "Also there is some spillover of orders from Q4 (Jan-March) that we realized in this quarter."

The company's order book, which indicates its outlook, stood at Rs 1.53 trillion at the end of June, up 11.7 percent from year ago. L&T said it won new orders worth Rs 195.94 billion in April-June.

The firm had forecast in May a 15-20% growth both in revenue and orders during the current fiscal. — Reuters

London, July 23
Gold prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday as concerns over Spain's financial health pushed the euro to two-year lows against the dollar, pressured stock markets and drove Spanish borrowing costs to euro-era highs.

Investors grew more concerned on Monday that Spain may need a full bailout after a second region, Murcia, indicated it would need government help, likely following Valencia in tapping a government programme to shore up its finances.

Spot gold was down 0.9 percent to $1,570.30 an ounce at 1347 GMT. Expectations for more euro weakness, and consequent dollar strength, is set to keep gold on the back foot. — Reuters