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GAIL not entitled to marketing margin on gas supply
CII wish-list on Haryana Budget
Sivasankaran gets 8 pc equity in Tata Tele
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Cabinet nod to Cement Corp’s revival
Tulip invests Rs 180 cr on IP network
More people contest insurance repudiation
Budget subsidy on LPG, PDS kerosene reduced
New CPI-IW series launched
2 more Sudan blocks for OVL soon
Jet deal sent for probe
ADB to double lending to India
Qatar order for Siemens
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GAIL not entitled to marketing margin on gas supply
New Delhi, March 9 “In terms of the Gas Pricing Order dated June 20, 2005, GAIL is not entitled to levy any marketing margin on any category of consumers for supply of APM (government regulated) or JV gas,” a Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas order said. The order comes after Mukesh Ambani-controlled Indian Petrochemicals Corp Ltd (IPCL) approached the ministry against GAIL’s notice to terminate gas supplies unless marketing margins were paid. The ministry’s order states that “in the Gas Pricing Order dated June 20, 2005 effective from July 1, 2005, the government has enunciated a dual pricing regime for different categories of consumers, which is Rs 3,200 per thousand cubic meters to power, fertiliser and court mandated/small consumers and the market regulated price for all other consumers.” “The said Pricing Order does not envisage any marketing margin on supplies to any particular category of consumers. Furthermore, there are no new marketing efforts made by GAIL post -June 30, 2005 vis-a-vis any of these consumers,” it said. AIL had demanded from IPCL a marketing margin of Rs 222 per thousand cubic meters on the government-administered or APM gas, which it was supplying to IPCL’s plants at Baroda, Gandhar (Gujarat) and Nagathone (Maharashtra). GAIL had last month stated that “IPCL has not signed the revised gas supply agreement with GAIL after the Government Pricing Order which came into effect on July 1, 2005,” a ground enough to terminate gas
supplies.— PTI
Interim dividend
Mumbai: GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Proshanto Banerjee has presented a dividend cheque for Rs 96.98 crore to Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora towards a special interim dividend for the current fiscal. A GAIL press note said today the company had paid a special interim dividend at the rate of 20 per cent on its equity share capital of Rs 845.65 crore for the financial year 2005-06. Earlier, GAIL had already paid an interim dividend at 60 per cent on the equity share capital for the financial year
2005-06. — UNI
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CII wish-list on Haryana Budget
Chandigarh, March 9 CII’s pre-Budget-memorandum submitted to the Haryana Government also recognised that while the service industry in the state continues its strong growth, there should be special focus on manufacturing and agriculture sector. Mr Jayant
Davar, Chairman, CII Haryana State Council stated this, while talking about the critical areas of focus for the Haryana Budget. In the agriculture and food-processing sector, the state should take full advantage of the national thrust on agriculture, by assuring irrigation, credit, diversification and creating a market for agricultural and allied products. Special Economic Zones
(SEZs) for agriculture products need to be developed with private sector’s participation. The state needs to develop highly sophisticated infrastructure for the high degree of transformation, right from cleaning and grading of raw material to milling, cooking, processing, mixing and chemical alterations. For successful implementation of proposed activities, it is imperative to seek the participation of the private sector. On the power front, CII’s wish-list stated that industrial areas should be encouraged for power generation and distribution. CII also recommended that captive power generation should be promoted in general. CII has suggested all tax-based and other fiscal incentives (deferrals/exemptions) should be phased out sooner than later. The manufacturing units have to pay tax not only on all inputs but also have to pay LADT on non-taxable sales. They have demanded that in order to avoid double taxation, LADT be totally abolished. CII also recommends that the SEZ Developers and their units may be granted exemption from the property/house tax in the Haryana Special Economic Zone Bill.
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Sivasankaran gets 8 pc equity in Tata Tele
New Delhi, March 9 Temasek had picked up 9.9 per cent stake in the closely held Tata Teleservices for about Rs 1,500 crore, company sources had said. When contacted, the spokesperson confirmed the deal but declined to give financial details. The funds raised from these two deals, 9.9 per cent to Temasek and 8 per cent to
Sivasankaran, would be to the tune of Rs 2,600 crore and these would be deployed in the expansion of network of the company, which has pan-India presence. Tata Teleservices offers both fixed line and mobile services, based on CDMA technology, along with other group company Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), which offers long-distance services and leased line. Asked whether the group was talking to other domestic or overseas investors for offloading more equity, sources indicated that there was no such plan any
more. Temasek Holdings Pte Limited has acquired the stake through its wholly owned subsidiary, Aranda Investments (Mauritius)
Pte. Limited. Immediately after the Temasek deal, Darryl Green, CEO of TTSL had said: “TTSL is already one of the large telecom companies in the world. This investment not only reaffirms investor interest in India’s telecom sector but underlines confidence in TTSL’s growth plans and aspirations to achieve market leadership.” Asked whether TTSL would now go public with an initial public offer (IPO) in the near future, the company refused to comment on the issue.
— PTI
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Cabinet nod to Cement Corp’s revival New Delhi, March 9 The Cabinet also approved for introduction of the National Jute Board Bill, 2006, in the Parliament. The Bill will help in the restructuring and coordinating the operations of the large number of organisations functioning in the jute sector. The CCEA also cleared the revival package of Hindustan Organic Chemicals Limited and Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd. The packages were earlier cleared by Board for Reconstruction of Public Enterprises.
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Tulip invests Rs 180 cr on IP network
New Delhi, March 9 The network covers over 300 Indian cities and is the only network in India to offer last mile data connectivity entirely on wireless, a company statement said. The company today said it aims to expand the network to over 500 cities by the end of this year. It said the focus would be on providing data connectivity for banks/ATMs, connecting corporates with their branches, dealer/distribution networks across the country, stockbrokers, media companies and government agencies.
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More people contest insurance repudiation
Chandigarh, March 9 In Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh, almost 35 per cent of the cases filed before the Insurance Ombudsman relate to medical insurance and 40 per cent to the motor vehicle insurance. In fact, over the years, the number of cases being filed in the non life insurance sector is showing a steady increase, as compared to the claims in life insurance. Talking to TNS here today, Dr A.K.
Kundra, Banking Ombudsman for Northern Region, said the number of complaints received by his office in the non-life insurance sector had increased from 258 in 2004-05, to 321 up to February 2006. “On the other hand, this fiscal has seen a shift and complaints in the life insurance sector have reduced from 460 in 2004-05, to 376 till February this year,” he said. Dr Kundra said other than medical insurance and motor vehicle claims, increase in cases relating to repudiation of insurance against burglary/ theft, and insurance of household goods, too, has shown that the non- life insurance sector is growing steadily. “The rise in number of complaints in non-life segment has been witnessed in all states —from 83 to 137 in Punjab, 81 to 115 in Haryana, and from four to seven in J&K. The number of complaints received from Himachal have been static at 15,” he added. Dr Kundra said that in the past five years, the total number of complaints (life insurance and non -life insurance) being received by the Insurance Ombudsman office have been increasing. “There was an almost 100 per cent rise in number of complaints received from 2003-04 (367) to 2004-05 (718). Even the complaints against the private insurance companies have gone up from 11 last year to 49 now,” he added.
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Budget subsidy on LPG, PDS kerosene reduced
New Delhi, March 9 While the subsidy on each LPG cylinder was brought down from Rs 45.18 in 2003-04 to Rs 22.58 in 2004-05, the similar component on PDS kerosene fell from Rs 1.65 a litre to Re 0.82, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply. However, due to the steep rise in international prices of sensitive petroleum products, oil marketing companies (OMCs) had been modulating the price increase in petrol and diesel also, besides maintaining the prices of subsidised products like domestic LPG and PDS kerosene, he said.As a result, OMCs had suffered under-recoveries in the sale of these products. Under-recoveries on PDS kerosene and domestic LPG nearly doubled from Rs 9,274 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 17,842 in 2004-05. While there was no under-recoveries on petrol and diesel in 2003-04, these were placed at Rs 2,304 in 2004-05. The total under-recoveries more than doubled from Rs 9,274 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 20,146 crore in 2004-05, according to provisional
figures.— UNI
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New CPI-IW series launched
Chandigarh, March 9 The all- India Index for January, 2006, stands at 119 and the linking factor for conversion of the new series index to the previous one on base 1982-100 is 4.63. The CPI-IW (2001-100) series replaces the CPI-IW (1982-100) series. The new series is more representative in character and reflects the latest consumption pattern of the industrial workers, according to an official press note here. As many as 78 centres have been covered in the 2001 series as against 70 centres in the 1982
series. The sample size for the conduct of the Working Class Family Income and Expenditure Survey- on the basis of which weighting diagrams have been derived-was increased to 41,040 families from 32,616 families in the 1982 series. The number of selected markets for the collection of retail price data has also increased to 289 markets under the 2001 series as against 226 markets covered in the 1982 series. The number of items directly retained in the index basket has increased to approximate 370 items as against 280 items approximately in the 1982 series. The CPI-IW is primarily used to regulate the dearness allowance of government employees and the workers in the industrial sectors. It is also used in fixation and revision of minimum wages in scheduled employments, besides measuring the inflation in retail
prices. — UNI
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2 more Sudan blocks for OVL soon
New Delhi, March 9 The Sudanese Government was also planning to award several other projects on a nomination basis to Indian entrepreneurs in other key areas of economic activities which include railways, cyber city, tourism and airports. The Sudanese experience with Indian businessmen had been so excellent, particularly with ONGC Videsh Ltd, which currently owned five blocks for oil and gas exploration that it had decided to award projects to Indian state-owned and private businesses on a nomination basis, said the Sudanese Ambassador. Assocham President Anil K. Agarwal said the identified areas for joint and mutual economic cooperation between Sudan and India should be not only oil and gas but also textiles, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and many areas in infrastructure, including roads, ports, airports, seaports and civil aviation. Mr Agarwal also stressed the need for having direct air linkages between India and
Sudan. The State Bank of India should open its branch in Sudan, he added.
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Jet deal sent for probe
New Delhi, March 9 “We have referred the Jet-Sahara deal to DGIR, which will submit its report in the next three weeks,” MRTPC Chairman Bhupinder Kumar Rathi said here today. Asked whether the Commission would be issuing notice to the buyer over the matter, he said this would depend on the recommendations of the report. “If the DGIR reports cartelisation of the aviation sector due to the buyout, then we will issue notice and the trial will formally start,” he said. Nearly a month after the mega deal was clinched in January this year, BJP MP Uday Singh had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging that MRTPC should look into it in the interest of probity and
transparency. — PTI
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ADB to double lending to India
Hyderabad, March 9 At present, the annual financial assistance to India is in the range of 1 to $1.5 billion. The new lending would go towards funding large-scale infrastructure projects. Earlier in the day, delivering the keynote address at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) here, Mr Kuroda said the ADB would provide financial assistance to the National Urban Renewal Mission, besides focussing on transport, energy and urban infrastructure. The ADB is currently assisting rural road projects in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Similar projects were being planned for Assam, Orissa and West Bengal. He revealed that financial aid was also in the offing for upgradation of weak road networks in Uttaranchal, Northeastern states, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. The ADB’s role in urban infrastructure projects in Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal would be extended to sanitation, water and waste management projects with targeted poverty reduction components and a strong focus on municipal reforms, Mr Kuroda said.
Meeting in May
The Asian Development Bank(ADB) will holds its 39th annual meeting “in this thriving city”, in May, its President Haruhiko Kuroda said today. The meet would discuss, among other things, the prospects of development in Asian countries, including the transforming economies like India and the role of the ADB in assisting them, Mr Kuroda said.
— UNI
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Qatar order for Siemens
Mumbai, March 9 The scope of supplies and services for Siemens India is Rs 530 crore, the company said, adding that the order covered the setting up of five substations of 220/132/66 KV within 19
months. — UNI
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RBI nod for CBoP issue Hutch plan for Punjab |
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