The government is making available the required resources to clear all claims of the exporters and the provisions are being made to ensure that claims of all of them are settled forthwith — Anand Sharma, Commerce and Industry Minister

New Delhi, July 31
Concerned by the weak rupee and fall in exports, the government today raised the rate of interest on subsidy scheme for exporters to 3 per cent and widen the coverage of the scheme to cover more sectors. "The rate of interest subvention from tomorrow, which would be available to exporters would be enhanced to 3 per cent for deepening of the benefit", Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said today.

At present, the interest subvention for exporters, which is a kind of interest subsidy, is 2 per cent. The minister further said all efforts would be made to clear claims of exporters. "The government is making available the required resources to clear all claims of the exporters and the provisions are being made to ensure that claims of all the exporters are settled forthwith", the minister said. There has been persistent demand to both increase the rate of subvention and also to widen the coverage. This will benefit the exporters of small and medium enterprises and also the most of the labour-intensive sectors. Their cost will come down appropriately by increase in the rate of interest subvention.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram said Rs 2,000 crore in additional funds has been provided for the measures to boost exports, including increasing the interest subvention from 2 per cent to 3 per cent on certain exports.

Sharma said the government was also considering to raise plan allocation for Market Access Initiative (MAI), Market Development Assistance and Central Assistance to States for Developing Export Infrastructure and other Allied Activities (ASIDE) Scheme. Welcoming further deepening of interest subvention by 1 per cent, M Rafeeque Ahmed, president, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), said it would help in reducing the cost of credit and adding to competitiveness of exports. He hoped that it would cover sectors not performing well as well as sunrise sectors of exports.

The Commerce Ministry has called a meeting of Board of Trade (BoT) on August 27 to consider more steps to give a boost to exports which is facing the brunt of global slowdown. India's merchandise exports has declined 1.4 per cent to $ 72.46 billion in the quarter ended June 2013 (April-June 2013).

New Delhi, July 31
Growth in eight infrastructure industries plunged to 0.1 per cent in June mainly due to contraction in crude oil, natural gas, coal and electricity output.

The eight core industries had expanded at a rate of 7.9 per cent in the same period last year.

The contraction in production of coal, crude oil, natural gas and electricity in the month was 3 per cent, 0.6 per cent, 16.7 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively, according to the government data.

The eight infrastructure industries have a weight of about 38 per cent in the overall industrial production.

Petroleum refinery production showed an expansion of 2.3 per cent. Steel production grew by 3.4 per cent, while cement output was up by 2.3 per cent in the review period.

During April-June period, the growth in eight infrastructure industries slowed to 1.6 per cent from 6.9 per cent in the same period last year. The growth was 3.2 per cent in 2012-13 as against 5 per cent in the previous financial year. — PTI

New Delhi, July 31
Gold today regained the Rs 29,000 level after nearly four months by surging Rs 755 to Rs 29,200 per 10 grams in the national capital on brisk buying by stockists and investors driven by firming global trend.

Silver also zoomed up by Rs 915 to Rs 42,260 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

The sentiment bolstered after gold climbed in global markets as investors awaited the conclusion of a Federal Reserve meeting on whether the central bank may start reducing its stimulus programme in the coming months, traders said.

Gold in Singapore, which normally sets the price trend on the domestic front, rose by 1 per cent to $1,339.74 an ounce and silver by 1.4 per cent to $20.01 an ounce.

Weak rupee against US dollar which make the import of the precious metals costlier and investors shifting funds from melting equities also influenced the sentiment.

On the domestic front, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity spurted by Rs 755 each to Rs 29,200 and Rs 29,000 per 10 grams, respectively, a level last seen on April 12.

In a similar fashion, silver ready jumped up by Rs 915 to Rs 42,260 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 42,160 per kg respectively. — PTI

Mumbai, July 31
RBI's liquidity squeezing measures will continue and they will be reversed only once the rupee is stabilised, Governor D Subbarao said today hinting at more tightenings through bond sales.

"It is difficult to attach a time-lime to do that (rollback the higher rates). All we said was that these measures will be rolled back in a calibrated manner as stability is restored to the foreign exchange market," he told analysts during the customary post-policy conference call here today.

He said the central bank will continue with sale of government bonds through open market operations to maintain tightness in liquidity.

"...(OMO sale) might see in the future, you know that OMO sale is part of this package of tightening," the RBI Governor said.

Earlier this month, the rupee fell to record low of 61.21 against the dollar, which prompted RBI to take steps to curb speculation in forex market by way of draining out liquidity from the system. — PTI

New Delhi, July 31
The All-India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers for June rose by three points and is now pegged at 231.

Retail inflation for industrial workers rose to 11.06 per cent in June compared 10.68 per cent in May due to rise in prices of food items, cigarette, electricity charges, doctor’s fee, medicines and petrol.

"The year-on-year inflation measured by monthly Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) stood at 11.06 per cent for June, 2013 as compared to 10.68 per cent for the previous month and 10.05 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year," a Labour Ministry statement said.

The largest upward pressure to the change in current index came from food group contributing 2.98 percentage points to the total change. — PTI

New Delhi, July 31
The Coal Ministry has initiated the process for allocation of five lignite mines situated in Rajasthan and Gujarat to be given out to government companies and state corporations for commercial mining under ground coal gasification.

The ministry has sought applications specifically from the PSUs of Rajasthan and Gujarat only for the five mines, four of which are located in Gujarat.

The ministry said the procedure of allocation as prescribed under Rules 3 and 4 of the Auction by Competitive Bidding of Coal Mines Rules, 2012, will be followed.

Earlier, the Coal Ministry had allocated coal mines to central and state PSUs in a similar fashion.

The five lignite blocks on offer are Panandhro extension, Bharkandanm and Ghala in Gujarat, Nagurda-Joranda in Rajasthan and Vastan (UCG block) in Gujarat.

"The blocks available for allocations are under the subjects rules for specified end-users i.e. Power and commercial mining as well as taking up UCG," it added.

"Accordingly, applications are invited from the government companies/corporations from the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan and therefore the state governments are requested to advise their respective PSUs/undertakings to submit their applications," the notice further said.

Earlier this month the ministry had started the process of allocating the coal blocks and given out 14 coal mines to central and state PSUs, including four to NTPC, two of which are in Chhattisgarh and the remaining two in Odisha. The blocks have reserves of 1,995 MT of coal.

The allocation of the blocks, having a geological reserve of 8,311 MT, will lead to an investment of more than Rs 1.6 lakh crore in the power sector, it said while allocating the coal blocks.

Other PSUs that have been allocated mines include Neyveli Uttar Pradesh Power Ltd, Odisha Thermal Power Corp, Jammu & Kashmir State Power Dev Corp, Chhattisgarh State Power Gen Co Ltd, Andhra Pradesh Generation Co, among others.

New Delhi, July 31
Telecom major Bharti Airtel today reported a 9.6 per cent drop in consolidated net profit to Rs 688.9 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, mainly due to depreciation in the rupee and higher taxes.

The company posted a profit of Rs 762.2 crore during the same period a year ago.

"Derivative and exchange fluctuation losses during the quarter were Rs 534 crore, mainly caused by the rupee depreciation," Airtel said in a statement. "Consolidated tax charges at Rs 968 crore have increased from Rs 454 crore last year, mainly increasing in Africa."

BRIEFLY

Now, file I-T return till August 5
New Delhi: The government on Wednesday extended the last date for filing of income tax returns by five days to August 5. The due date, which was July 31, has been extended in the wake of ‘unprecedented surge’ in number of I-T returns being filed electronically. — PTI

NFL share sale fully subscribed
New Delhi: The government on Wednesday raised Rs 101 crore from the sale of 3.74 crore shares in National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL), with the issue over-subscribed well before the markets closed. The issue attracted bids for over 3.8 crore shares, or 1.02 times the 3.74 crore shares offered, according to data from the stock exchanges. — PTI

Yes Bank raises interest rates
New Delhi: Yes Bank on Wednesday raised lending and deposit rates by up to 0.5 per cent. The bank revised upwards its base rate by 0.25 per cent 10.75 per cent effective August 1, it said. The bank also revised its fixed deposit rates by 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent in select tenors, it said. — PTI

Western Union’s Ramadan offer
Chandigarh: Western Union has launched ‘10 Guna Zyada’ offer to reward international money transfer recipients during the holy season of Ramadan. Under the offer, 30 international remittance receivers have the opportunity to increase their principal amount received 10-fold. The scheme has been launched in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka. The offer closes on August 6. — TNS

Hyderabad-London daily flight
Hyderabad: British Airways said on Tuesday it will operate a daily flight from Hyderabad to London from October 27, providing seamless connections to over 500 destinations around the world. — PTI