Guwahati, August 13
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has discovered four new oil fields in upper Assam boosting its future production.

ONGC (onshore) director A.K. Hazarika told reporters here last night that the new fields are Mekeypore, Kalyanpur, Panidihing and Disangmukh.

He said the Assam asset of ONGC has lined up a capital expenditure (capex) of Rs 811 crore in 2007-08 marking a substantial increase of 60 per cent compared to the expenditure of Rs 508 crore incurred in the previous financial year (06-07).

As part of the capex, the third gas compressor plant, at a cost of Rs 82.54 crore is to be installed at Geleki Group Gathering Station (GGS) of the company. The foundation stone for the new plant was laid by Hazarika at Geleki's GGS complex yesterday.

The project is scheduled to be completed by June 2008 to generate high pressure gas in sufficient quantity, which is required for optimal operation of gas lift system at Geleki Field. Once the new facility becomes operational, the estimated production of oil could be around 2,000 cubic metres per day from its Geleki Field.

Hazarika, along with executive director/asset manager J.G. Chaturvedi, said the new discoveries have helped maintain a healthy reserve/ replacement ratio of the company in Assam, which meant, the ONGC has been able to add to the recoverable reserve for every barrel of oil produced. At present, ONGC Assam asset has a recoverable reserve base of 72.8 million metric tonnes (MMT) of oil. At the current level of production, the life of the reserve can continue for about 54 years.

The Assam asset has formulated and is implementing a robust growth strategy, with focus on exploration to find among others, new resources, to increase production and to renew infrastructure and facilities.

As part of the technology revitalisation, world class service providers have been integrated with cutting-edge technology, to enhance production. — UNI

New Delhi, August 13
The Supreme Court today sought a reply from the Centre and GAIL (India) on petitions filed by GVK Power and Infrastructure and its group company Gautami Power seeking steady supply of gas for their Rs 1,450-crore power plant that has been lying idle since September 2006.

A Bench headed by Justice B.N. Agarwal issued notices to all respondents, which also included Andhra Pradesh government, asking them to submit replies to the petitions.

Gautami Power had moved the apex court challenging an order of the division Bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court that dismissed its application. The company had sought continuous supply of 1.96 million cubic metres per day of gas from GAIL for commissioning and operating its 360 MW power project near Secunderabad.

While seeking continuous supply of gas for at least nine weeks, Gautami had said the state was deliberately delaying the commissioning of its power project and purchasing electricity from outside at a steep price of Rs 6 per unit.

The state government had "unjustifiably and unreasonably" ignored its repeated requests and withheld its recommendations and had asked GAIL to supply gas to another power generating company Vemagiri Power Generation, the company said. — PTI

Pune, August 13
Reliance Money, the financial products distribution company of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, today launched services in rural markets with an initial target of tapping 1,000 talukas across five states in the country.

It has also announced its tie-up with Rural Relations, a rural consumer relations organisation, for identifying partners and locations for rolling 10,000 outlets in 5,165 talukas across India by the end of this fiscal.

Rural customers will have to pay an annual premium of as low as Rs 25 for insurance policies, while systematic investment plan of Rs 50 and Rs 100 per month was available for mutual funds.

“This is our effort to take financial instruments to rural masses and give them an opportunity to invest in various financial products like mutual funds, stocks and gold coins and secure their lives and other valuables by taking adequate insurance covers,” Reliance Money CEO and director Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

Reliance Money is looking to open over 20,000 outlets and 10,000 kiosks across the country by the end of this year. Out of the total outlets, 10,000 would be for rural markets while the remaining half would be in urban areas.

The company already has presence in 727 cities and towns across India. — PTI

New Delhi, August 13
In a major initiative, first of its kind for a telecom service provider in India, Reliance Communications (RCoM) is all set to introduce a mega contest for rural mobile applications which will considerably simplify the lives of rural population.

The contest will kick off early next month and will have an independent panel of judges comprising eminent professionals. Company officials here said in order to boost the rural penetration, it was imperative that certain applications be developed for the rural market. This programme will also allow RCoM to make further inroads into country’s vast population in rural areas.

The aim of Reliance Developer Programme is to provide a unique platform to the developer community in India to innovate, ideate, showcase, and participate in developing path breaking applications.

Chandigarh, August 13
Spice Telecom has bagged a licence to operate national and international long-distance (NLD/ILD) services in India.

Spice has been given the licence to carry both voice and data traffic, nationally and internationally.

Dilip Modi, CMD, Spice Telecom, said: “I am delighted to confirm that Spice Communications has been granted NLD/ILD licences by the Department of Telecommunication, close on the hills of our successful IPO.” — TNS

New Delhi, August 13
Continued power disruptions in north, south and western regions have already forced industrial units to curtail their industrial production by about 15 per cent in June-July 2007 and since there is hardly any improvement in assured power supplies, the loss of industrial production is likely to exceed 25 per cent in August and September, as per an Assocham survey.

The power deficit, that thousands of industrial units suffered in June-July, was estimated between 20-25 per cent, the range of which would go beyond 35 per cent in August and September due to excessive rains experienced in most part of north, south and western India, it said today.

As a result of this power deficit, industrial production in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa would have to be curtailed by 20-25 per cent, particularly in manufacturing units as these have no alternative means to produce power, it added.

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the two states in which power cuts exceed 10-12 hours a day and they face the worst energy crisis, which will further deepen in the absence of corrective measures. Therefore, industrial locations in these states would have to curtail their industrial production to the extent of 40 per cent, the chamber president Venugopal Dhoot said.

Karnal, August 13
The State Bank of Patiala (SBoP) organised a business meet with rice exporters and agriculture implements manufacturers of Karnal district here. The meeting was attended by 15 rice exporters and 40 agriculture implements manufacturers.

The meeting was addressed by Diwakar Gupta, chief manager of the bank. Sudhiranjan Sinha, deputy general manager, Haryana zone, Ranjit Datta, DGM (D&RB), head office, Patiala, and R. K. Madaan, assistant general manager, regional manager, Panipat, also interacted with the participants.

SBoP is the first public sector bank in the country to have networked all its branches and is providing core banking facilities. For exporters, the Karnal (railway road) branch of the bank is equipped with SWIFT facilities.

The bank has recently opened a cell at Karnal for quicker delivery of credit to small and medium enterprises, retail and personal banking clients. 

New Delhi, August 13
IT majors Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have emerged as the most reputed corporates in India while Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Hindustan Unilever have tied for the second place, says a corporate reputation index study.

The largest car maker in the country Maruti Udyog has got the third highest number of votes on the index, says the global consultancy firm TNS' latest Corporate Reputation Index.

The research firm said India's progress is led by IT sector followed by FMCG and petroleum.

"Corporate reputation is assuming increasing importance in today's business, economic and social environment. As corporate behaviour is increasingly under scrutiny and corporate valuations go beyond financial performance parameters, it is considered to be a measure of confidence in the organisation and goes much beyond market capitalisation and brand equity," TNS said in a statement.

The corporate reputation index represents stakeholder expectations and experiences with the company and its services, processes, management and systems.

The study reflects views of financial community and senior and middle business managers in the industry. It also includes expectations of opinion leaders which comprise of senior bureaucrats, academicians and media personalities.

A total of 70 leading companies across various sectors were selected for the study conducted in the last quarter of previous fiscal.

While all top five companies figure in lead rankings across all stakeholder groups, the leaders in the respective stakeholder segments include some more corporate houses.

"We observe that amongst the financial community, Tata Steel leads with a CRS Index of 94. Other companies with relatively strong corporate reputation in this stakeholder group are ICICI Bank, Intel, Wipro, Tata Motors and Reliance Industries," TNS said.

It said the responses of financial segment seem to be skewed towards the banking sector. Dynamic leadership has been the key factor while evaluating a company's reputation.

Amongst business managers, Infosys Technologies leads with CRS of complete 100, followed by TCS, HLL, Intel and Tata Power.

The group comprising opinion leaders has evaluated Tata Tea as the best corporate with a CRS Index of 92. Other companies figuring at the top are Infosys, SAIL, Asian Paints and Tata Motors. — PTI

Karnal, August 13
Karnal Haveli, a Punjabi theme restaurant, situated on the National Highway-1, has been conferred with Bhartiya Vikas Rattan Award.

The award was given at a seminar held in New Delhi with the joint association of All-India Business Development Association and Global Society for Health and Educational Growth. The award is given every year in various categories for outstanding performance and achievement. — TNS

Mumbai, August 13
Flush with sugar this year, co-operatives in Maharashtra are looking at the export markets for relief and Pakistan has emerged as a big saviour to the trade.

According to an official of the Maharashtra Federation of Sugar Co-operatives, a bumper crop has resulted in the mills saddled with more than 10 lakhs tonnes of sugar that should have been picked up by the government. "This year, sugar in the open market is cheaper than levy sugar sold by the government via the Public Distribution System," says Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the federation.

The bumper crop during the 2006-07 season has resulted in the production of 29 million tonnes of sugar as against 24.64 million tonnes the year before. Sugar prices are ruling at a low Rs 1,100 per quintal, according to information available from the agriculture markets serving Mumbai. Sugar prices will fall to around Rs 900 per quintal in the coming days if the co-operatives are permitted to offload the levy sugar into the open markets, officials say.

Across the country, the bumper sugar crop has resulted in more than 10 million tonnes of sugar lying with sugar mills.

In Maharashtra, the sugar co-operatives face a bigger problem. Most of them are in poor shape financially and would have to pay farmers for the crop. Falling sugar prices would impact the co-operatives and by extension the farmers as well.

In this situation, Pakistan has emerged as the unlikely savior of the sugar producers in the country.

New Delhi, August 13
India Inc. has expressed the need to remove disputable issues in the hands of the taxpayer and arbitrary discretion in the hands of the assessing officers while distinguishing between business income and capital gains.

The CII was reacting to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) circular on distinction between shares held as stock-in-trade and shares held as investment.

The chamber said it appreciates CBDT’s emphasis on possibility of taxpayer having two portfolios namely investment portfolio and trading portfolio and earn an income under the head capital gains as well as business income. The CII said this is a single-largest progressive step as it is extremely common for any taxpayer to simultaneously engage in ‘investment’ and ‘trading’.

The chamber said there is a need to have a clear methodology on recognition of business income and capital gains. It said this debatable distinction between business income and capital gains can be approached in the following ways as long as the understanding of concepts is kept practical and to make the law simpler.

The classical definition of a share/security to be treated as a capital asset is where it is bought for delivery. Accordingly, the shares that have been bought for delivery shall be treated as capital asset and any gains from sale of such shares shall be treated as capital gains.

This leaves the question of how the derivatives shall be treated. In Indian markets, the current regulations do not allow delivery in the Futures & Options segment but these contracts have to be settled in cash on the expiry date. If one follows the test of delivery to qualify a transaction for capital gains, so long as regulations do not change to result into delivery for F&O, CII feels that all such transactions should not qualify for capital gains.

If all transactions in derivative segment don’t qualify for capital gains, it would mean the gains arising out of dealing in derivative instruments would be either ‘speculative profits’ or ‘profits from business or profession’. For academic purposes, the transactions where the taxpayer does not hold underlying shares should be treated as speculative. On the other hand, where the objective is hedging and the taxpayer holds the underlying shares on the date of taking position in derivatives, such transaction gains should be treated as business profits. The distinction between speculative profits and business profits should be based on the books of the taxpayer.

The chamber said following the methodology suggested by it, the government could remove most of the disputable issues in the hands of the taxpayer. It would also help resolve complicated issues like the treatment of capital gains on shares in cases of retired people, housewives or students whose sole income might be from capital gains on shares but it might not be their business.