New Delhi, September 17
The proposed sale of Jaypee group’s hydel assets to Reliance Power in an estimated Rs 12,000-crore deal may get delayed due to regulatory uncertainties over tariff issues related to 1,000 MW Karcham Wangtoo hydro project — one of the three projects being sold.

In one of the biggest deals in the power space, Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Power in July had announced that it had signed an initial agreement to acquire all three hydroelectric power plants of Jaiprakash Associates. The deal would be worth about Rs 12,000 crore.

Sources said that Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd (JPVL) has withdrawn its application before CERC pertaining to interim tariff for electricity generated from Karcham Wangtoo hydro project and this could delay the deal.

When contacted, a Reliance Power official declined to comment, while there was no response to queries sent to Jaypee group.

JPVL, which is a part of Jaypee Group, is expected to file a new application for final tariff before the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).

This project is part of the proposed deal with Reliance Power.

Sources said that regulatory uncertainty over the Karcham Wangtoo project, pertaining to tariff charged for electricity produced from the plant, could delay the deal since major chunk of the transaction pertains to debt.

The Rs 12,000-crore deal includes Rs 9,500 crore in debt and Rs 2,500 in equity.

According to sources, the tariff uncertainty could adversely impact Jaypee Group’s financials and debt reduction plans. — PTI

New Delhi, September 17
The government has decided that the facilities available to those account holders who have opened their accounts under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) would also be extended to the existing account holders subject to submission of an application by the account holder to the bank branch concerned.

These include issuance of RuPay Debit card having inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh and issuance of an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 after satisfactory operations in the account for some time.

The plan (PMJDY) inter alia, envisages universal access to banking facilities under which all six lakh villages across the entire country would be mapped, organised into Sub Service Areas (SSAs) of 1,000-1,500 households and allocated to the banks to provide at least one fixed point banking outlet in the form of either a branch or a Business Correspondent (who is named as Bank Mitra).

The other components of the plan are providing at least one Basic Banking Account to each household with RuPay Debit card having inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh, an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 after satisfactory operations in the account for six months. Further, an additional life insurance cover of Rs 30,000 is also available to accounts opened up to January 26 for which detailed modalities are being worked out.

The government has asked the banks to extend overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 to only one member, preferably lady of a household. 

New Delhi, September 17
Maruti Suzuki India’s marketing and sales head Mayank Pareek has quit the company after nearly 20 years of service at the country’s largest carmaker.

Pareek, who is designated chief operating officer (marketing and sales), could not be reached for comments. However, according to people familiar with the development, he has put in papers to pursue ‘better opportunities’.

The company spokesperson declined to comment.

It is speculated that he may join Tata Motors, which has been seeking a revival in fortunes in the passenger cars segment.

Besides the company chairman RC Bhargava, Pareek is the other Indian face of the company in which Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation holds majority stake. His sudden departure comes at a time when Maruti is gearing up to launch its premium sedan Ciaz next month. — PTI

New Delhi, September 17
To ensure greater transparency and easier regulatory oversight, market regulator SEBI plans to make it mandatory for listed companies to publish annual information memorandum on all details about their businesses and statutory disclosures.

Noting that such an exercise would help in a variety of ways, SEBI chairman UK Sinha said, “One is that you will not be visited by undue litigations from the regulators”.

“Secondly, if you are going to raise some funds, either debt or equity, you don’t have to update this information again and again. That is another idea why we are doing this,” he said.

He was speaking at a conference organised by industry body CII.

New Delhi, September 17
Retirement fund manager EPFO today said it is not considering any proposal to invest a part of its huge corpus of around Rs 6 lakh crore in stock markets. “We are not considering any proposal to invest in stock markets or equity at present,” EPFO Central Provident Fund Commissioner KK Jalan said.

He said this in response to media reports that EPFO has no alternative but to change its investment norms to invest in equity markets.

Jalan said, “During the recent meeting of the EPFO’s trustees, proposed pattern of investment by Finance Ministry was discussed and the Board was not in favour of investing in equities and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).”

The Finance Ministry has been pitching for EPFO funds to be invested in the equity markets to maximise their yields. — PTI

New Delhi, September 17
The MSME Ministry is in talks with public sector banks to extend loans to micro, small and medium enterprises at base rate to help the sector access vast capital from financial institutions at lower costs, Union Minister Kalraj Mishra said today.

He said the government plans to open 500 district-level incubation centres across the country to train youth to become entrepreneurs.

“We will also open 100 high-technology incubation centres. We want to instill confidence among unemployed youth so that they can become independent,” he said at a PHD Chamber event.

New Delhi, September 17
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is believed to have awarded another contract for 50,000-70,000 LTE base stations to Samsung, global brokerage firm Credit Suisse said.

RJIL had earlier awarded a contract for 60,000 LTE base stations to Samsung.

“In addition to the base station contract (for 60,000 LTE units for the initial launch network), we understand the second contract for 50,000-70,000 base stations has also been awarded to Samsung,” Credit Suisse said. — PTI