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TRAI cuts access deficit charges
RIL seeks special status for Jamnagar refinery
Idea inks deal with IBM
Tatas may shelve Bangladesh plan
We will tackle power theft
on war-footing, says PM
Huge potential in power sector: Shinde
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Centre fixes rehab onus on SEZ developer
Pawar flays govt role
in land acquisition
Liquidity squeeze to end soon: FM
PSUs line up Rs 1,84,383 cr for next fiscal
India to produce 175 MT steel by 2020: Paswan
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TRAI cuts access deficit charges
New Delhi, March 21 The ADC levy for 2007-08 has been reduced to approximately Rs 2,000 crore from existing level of Rs 3,200 crore, TRAI said in a statement here. In particular, international long distance (ISD) calls are likely to become cheaper as the levy on such calls has been completely removed from 80 paise being charged now. All private operators pay ADC to BSNL for carrying out social obligations like providing services in non-remunerative and rural areas. The authority expects that the reduction in ADC would be fully passed on to the consumers by the service providers, TRAI said. The new regime would come into effect from April 1. TRAI also reduced the levy on incoming ILD calls by 38 per cent to Re 1 from the Rs 1.60 per minute. The ADC on percentage revenue share basis of the telecom operators has been reduced by 50 per cent. Telecom operators would now have to pay 0.75 per cent of their adjusted gross revenues towards ADC from existing 1.50 per cent, TRAI said. The levy would be charged on revenue of access providers generated from rural subscribers. TRAI said ADC was a depleting regime and should be merged with universal service obligation fund, if considered necessary by the department of telecom. ADC, which is for a limited period, is mainly to give time to telecom operators for rebalancing the tariff during a transition period. The reduction in ADC would give greater flexibility to service providers for reducing the tariff and offer innovative packages to consumers, it said. The reduction in arbitrage in international incoming calls would give less incentive for ILD grey market, it added.
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RIL seeks special status for Jamnagar refinery
New Delhi, March 21 RIL has applied to the commerce ministry for grant of export-oriented unit (EOU) status for the refinery that has been in operation since July 1999, a highly placed government official said. The company’s subsidiary Reliance Petroleum Ltd is already building an export-oriented 29 million tons a year refinery adjacent to the existing unit. The new refinery is scheduled to be completed in 2009. The company plans to convert the refinery, which during its initial years of operation got tax rebates like income tax holiday and sales tax deferment, into an export house as it found selling petroleum products like petrol and diesel uneconomical due to the subsidy public sector firms receive from the government. Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum have been able to keep fuel prices way below the cost as they got oil bonds and discounts from crude oil producers like ONGC to make up for the loss. Reliance and other private retailers like Essar Oil and Shell do not get such concessions. Industry sources said EOU status would mean that RIL does not pay 5 per cent import duty on crude oil, resulting in lower cost of production of petrochemical feedstock naphtha, which is likely to find its way into Nova Chemicals of North America, RIL’s potential takeover target. RIL will, however, continue to sell products from the Jamnagar refinery to its 1,367 retail outlets and liquefied petroleum gas to PSUs, the sources said, adding the company by virtue to the EOU status will get import parity price for LPG.
— PTI |
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Mumbai, March 21 The deal would help Idea meet the needs of its 14 million customers and future growth by supporting transformation of business critical processes, including billing, fraud management, e-billing and payment and customer care among others, Idea said. It covers Idea’s existing operations and potential new additions, the company said, adding the agreement would help shore up its revenues and profits. The partnership will also allow Idea to leverage opportunities from the convergence of voice, data, video and wireless technologies and add new revenue streams to provide a competitive edge, it said. Besides, it would help Idea to empower its business with analytic tools for focused market segmentation and improve customer management to drive efficiency. “We will harness IBM’s power to support Idea’s explosive growth with robust and best-in-class solutions,” Idea Managing Director Sanjeev Aga said. All IT department employees of Idea would play a key role in the transformation, either as Idea employees or as IBM employees, he added. — PTI
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Tatas may shelve Bangladesh plan
New Delhi, March 21 "While we may be interested in investments in Bangladesh, the more time it takes to come to an agreement or more delays happen, the more difficult it will be for us to invest in the country," Tata group's chief of Bangladesh operations Indranil Sengupta said. "Any organisation has limited financial and human resources," he said, and warned the group was constantly looking for opportunities across the globe. "As and when we keep committing to our resources to such opportunities, the resources becomes more limited," he said, citing the example of Tatas takeover of Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus Group Plc in a $12-billion
deal. — PTI |
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We will tackle power theft
on war-footing, says PM
New Delhi, March 21 “High transmission and distribution losses and constant theft of electricity are unacceptable propositions. These need to be tackled truly on a war-footing. I sincerely hope we can forge a broad national consensus on the challenges we face in this vital sector of our economy,” he said here after giving away national awards to the power utilities. “We have not paid in the past adequate attention to this fact… Reforms in power distribution and pricing, therefore, are a vital aspect of the quest for energy security,” the Prime Minister said, adding he considered reforms in the distribution sector as vital for the commercial viability and sustainable development of the power sector. Pointing that demand side management also has not received adequate attention in the past, he said: “We need to consciously plan and adopt energy efficient equipment, gadgets and lighting devices to save power”. The Prime Minister said the demand for power had outstripped the supply and the shortages remained a constraint on the development and livelihood of people. Reliance Energy bagged the gold and silver Awards for Dahanu thermal power station. The award wad handed over by the Prime Minister to A.N. Sethuraman, executive VP of Reliance Energy Ltd. Seven power stations of NTPC bagged the prestigious national meritorious performance awards, NHPC bagged gold and silver awards for the 1000-MW Indira Sagar hydroelectric project. While T Sankaralingam, CMD, received the awards on behalf of NTPC, S.K. Garg, CMD of NHPC received the awards on behalf of the company. |
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Huge potential in power sector: Shinde
New Delhi, March 21 He was inaugurating the two-day conference on emerging investment opportunities in the South Asian power sector, organised jointly by FICCI, the South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy, USAID and the SAARC Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Shinde said: “We need more than just one manufacturer for equipments such as turbines and boilers, especially for the units of the size of ultra mega power projects. We have, therefore, established a manufacturing arm of NTPC that will address the issue”. Shinde said the government was laying emphasis on energy efficiency projects which could lead to a saving of 73 per cent of energy consumption. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency, he said, had initiated several steps in the areas of energy conservation for the industry, domestic sector, commercial establishments and in agriculture. The award of two ultra mega power projects of 4,000 MW each to private developers, Sasan (Madhya Pradesh) and Mundra (Gujarat) has set a new benchmark for electricity pricing in the country, he said, adding: “These projects will meet the power needs of a number of states through transmission of power on regional and national basis”. The minister said in order to facilitate the development of the electricity market, the government had issued guidelines on development of merchant power plants.
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Centre fixes rehab onus on SEZ developer
New Delhi, March 21 “The developer (of special economic zones) shall make adequate provision for rehabilitation of the displaced persons as per the relief and rehabilitation policy of the state government,” a commerce ministry notification said. The sudden change in rules by the commerce ministry, the nodal agency for approving SEZs, has even preceded the finalisation of the rehabilitation policy being worked out by the ministry of rural development. The announcement comes on a day when leaders of UPA as well as Left parties are meeting at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence. Further, in a tightening measure to check speculation by real estate players, the validity for in-principle approval has been reduced from three years to one year. However, the validity for formal approval remains three years because land possession is essential for getting the final nod from board of approval in the commerce ministry. The developer will have to show it possesses irrevocable rights over land. — PTI
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Pawar flays govt role
in land acquisition
New Delhi, March 21 “My ministry would be happy if instead of government machinery to acquire land, we encourage dialogue directly from farmers and if farmers and entrepreneurs come to an understanding, then we have no objection,” Pawar said here today. “We should avoid using government machinery for acquiring land,” Pawar said he was not against industry or industrial growth, but it must be ensured that the land to be acquired for such projects was not fertile irrigated land. Meanwhile, minister of state for commerce and industry Ashwani Kumar said all outstanding concerns and issues pertaining to SEZs had been placed before the empowered group of ministers and were currently under consideration. |
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Liquidity squeeze to end soon: FM
New Delhi, March 21 Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the release of a report by UNESCAP here today, he attributed the present liquidity squeeze to advance tax payments. “Liquidity (tightness) is mainly due to advance tax payments, it will be alright in a few days as the ministries, departments start spending money,” he said. The government has collected around Rs 40,000 crore in advance tax payments in the last quarter of this fiscal ended March 15. Liquidity squeeze pushed up call money rates to 60 per cent intra-day yesterday before they closed at 17 per cent.
— PTI |
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PSUs line up Rs 1,84,383 cr for next fiscal
New Delhi, March 21 According to Assocham Eco Pulse (AEP) study on ‘Plan investment of CPSEs in 2007-08’ released by its president Venugopal N. Dhoot, the maximum of the investments have been lined up in the sectors like petroleum and natural gas (Rs 38,902 crore), power (Rs 28,387.73 crore), telecom (Rs 25,471 crore), following the sectors like shipping (Rs 12,612 crore), civil aviation (Rs 12,192 crore) and steel (Rs 6,202 crore). BSNL would be investing Rs 22,881 crore for improving its network, infrastructure along with the help of global vendors. ONGC would invest Rs 17,887 crore whereas Air-India has tied up Rs 6,337 crore for modernising its fleet. NTPC is on top of CPSEs in the power sector with the investment plan of Rs 12,792 crore whereas the Power Grid Corporation would be spending Rs 6,500 crore in the financial year 2007-08. “Thanks to the economy growing at over 9 per cent, the plan investment by CPSEs would increase by Rs 42, 029 crore, sharing an increase of 33 per cent in 2007-08 compared to the previous year”, the Assocham chief said. Total internal resources of the public sector enterprises have increased by an impressive 31 per cent in fiscal 2007-08 by Rs 22,798 crore. Where ONGC remained the largest holder of the internal funds of Rs. 16518 crore in 2006-07 also, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, would multiply its pool of funds by more than three-fold.
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India to produce 175 MT steel by 2020: Paswan
New Delhi, March 21 “Our steel policy envisages a production level of 110 MT by 2020, but we are likely to achieve a production of 175 MT by the same period,” Paswan said, asking the steel industry to gear up their production needs. He was addressing a press conference after launching the nationwide steel promotion campaign organised by the Institute of Steel Development and Growth. On the contentious issue of iron ore export, the minister said, “I am not against export of iron ore but the needs of the domestic utilities and their expansion plans would have to be factored in while allowing export of ore”. Paswan, however, did not favour increasing the export duty on iron ore as proposed by in the budget. |
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Chandigarh, March 21
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OBC tie-up for online trading VLCC outlet OSRAM Centurion Bank |
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