New Delhi, August 24
Finance minister P Chidambaram today said the government would not hesitate in taking further fiscal measures to check inflation, but has no control over prices of imported crude oil.

Expressing concern over the rise in prices of essential commodities, including fruits and vegetables, the finance minister said these could only be checked by increasing agriculture production.

But at the core level the government has brought down the inflation to 4.05 per cent after taking several taxation and monetary measures. "I will not hesitate to take further fiscal measures to control inflation," Chidambaram said in his reply to the debate on the Appropriation Bill, 2007 in the Rajya Sabha, which was returned by the Upper House.

The finance minister said the prices of essential commodities and food articles had risen because of stagnation in production. The demand-supply mismatch in items like tomato and potato cannot be bridged by imports either.

Chidambaram said the government has also no control over the crude oil prices, which have touched $72 per barrel in the international market.

Referring to the fiscal prudence, he said that he would try to bring the revenue deficit to zero this year itself.

But he was confident that by 2008-09 the revenue deficit would be wiped out, meeting the crucial targets set in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Bill (FRBM).— PTI

Mumbai, August 24
Capital market regulator SEBI today decided to introduce a fast- track mechanism for issuing securities, which would allow listed companies to raise funds from the markets in the least possible time.

Under the fast-track issuance of securities, lead managers can proceed with the issue or capital raising plans of companies listed on the NSE or BSE after filing the offer document with SEBI, the regulator said in a statement.

However, it added that the new mode of issuing securities will be applicable only after necessary amendments in the SEBI (Disclosure and Investor Protection) Guidelines, which are expected to be released shortly.

The new mechanism will benefit only those companies which are listed on the BSE or NSE for at least three years, and have a market capitalisation of at least Rs 10,000 crore during the last one year.

Market experts said the fast track mechanism is likely to cut down the time for raising funds significantly as also market uncertainty over process of capital issue of big firms.

SEBI also said the listed companies which meet the requirements will be eligible for "rationalised disclosures as well as simplified procedural requirements."

Once a company's board or shareholders pass a resolution to raise necessary capital from the market, the firm will get an in-principle approval from stock exchanges.

After that the prospectus, letter of offer will be prepared by lead managers as the provisions of the Companies Act and SEBI (CIP) Guidelines and same shall be filed with SEBI and stock exchanges for record purposes, it added. — PTI

New Delhi, August 24
The Supreme Court has asked telecom tribunal TDSAT, which had thrown out a claim filed by the Centre seeking over Rs 654 crore damages from Tata Teleservices, to hear the case afresh.

While setting aside TDSAT's order that dismissed the counter claim of the government as non- maintainable, a Bench comprising Justice H K Sema and P K Balasubramanyan said the tribunal had committed error in dismissing the counter claim and added it was an appropriate case for reopening.

The court directed the government to make a proper counter-claim within three months before the tribunal, which would decide both Tata's claim and the government's counter claim in accordance with law.

The government had raised the demand for over Rs 654 crore from Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd for the loss suffered by it on account of the latter failing to provide services in Karnataka Telecom Circle.

"There was no reason to whittle down the right given to the Central government to approach TDSAT for adjudication of its claim... Normally a right to make a claim would also include a right to make a cross-claim or a counter claim..., the Bench observed.— PTI

New Delhi, August 24
With the Ministry of Corporate Affairs today approving the application for merger of Indian (airlines) with Air India the new company called National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), having the brand name Air India, finally came into existence.

Although the official date for the merger of the two public sector airlines, which would create the country’s largest airline, was August 1 last but with the unions of the two airlines filing objections with the ministry of corporate affairs the merger was on hold. However, with the ministry dismissing the objections the merged airline finally came into place with Indian seizing to exist.

With the filing of this approval with the registrar of companies, the legal process for the merger has been completed, an official release said here.

Meanwhile, the board of Indian and Air India also met here, followed by the board meeting of the new entity NACIL.

V Thulasidas takes over as the chairman and managing director, while Vishwapati Trivedi will be the joint managing director of the new entity, the release said.

Post-merger, the airline will fly under the name of Air India, both domestically and on international routes. It would operate three brands - Air India, Air India express (low-cost) and Air India Cargo.

‘Air India’ has already launched its inaugural daily, non-stop Mumbai-New York flight with the first Boeing 777 200 LR aircraft. This is the first non-stop India - US flight by a domestic carrier. The new Boeing 777 aircraft was the first of the series to sport the new branding.

New Delhi, August 24
The government today said it plans to bring a Bill to empower the RBI to regulate and oversee various payment and settlement systems, including those by card companies and national bodies like Clearing Company of India.

“We intend to bring a Bill to regulate payment systems,” finance minister P Chidambaram told the Lok Sabha today while replying to questions over credit card industry.

The Payment and Settlements Bill, cleared by Cabinet yesterday, provides for setting up a new National Payments Company that would take over the retail payment systems.

The various retail payment systems in operation include card-based paper system, manual paper-based clearing and fund transfer system.

Replying to another question with regard to cloning of credit cards resulting in frauds, Chidambaram said out of millions of cards issued throughout the country only 127 instances were reported in 2006 and the amount involved was Rs 235.42 lakh. While in 2007, till June, 61 cases have come forward involving Rs 123.11 crore.

Minister of state for finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said representations had been received from the public about rejection of their loan or credit card applications without assigning reasons.

The government has advised the RBI and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to take corrective measures to ensure that customers of the banks get efficient and hassle-free banking services at affordable charges, he said.

Banking Ombudsmen have been appointed for quick disposal of the complaints of the bank customers, he said, adding banks are also required to set up internal grievance redressal mechanism to redress the grievances of their customers in a time-bound manner.

The IBA has issued a Fair Practices Code, which provides for furnishing reasons for rejection of loans, including credit card limits to the customers.

On the question of increasing misuse of Permanant Account Number (PAN) cards, finance minister said the government is likely to introduce biometric solution so that no one can get a duplicate card.

A joint working group in the ministry of finance has given its report after obtaining technical and commercial proposals from leading biometric solution providers, he said.

He also informed the House that the number of persons suspected to have duplicate PANs are estimated to be 13,10,127 throughout the country.

New Delhi, August 24
Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia has reached an agreement with Matsushita Battery, under which the Japanese vendor will cover the various costs related to replacement of batteries.

“Matsushita Battery has agreed to cover the direct costs associated with the product advisory, including among other things, logistics costs, call center costs and replacement battery costs,” Matsushita Battery Industrial Co president Masatsugu Kondo said.

Nokia had on August 14 issued a product advisory warning possible malfunctioning of BL-5C batteries manufactured during November 2005 and December 2006, estimated at 46 million, and had agreed to replace them free of cost.

“Nokia and Matsushita have a long business relationship and the two companies are cooperating closely together in this situation,” he said in a communication posted on Nokia’s website.

Asked about the total cost of faulty batteries, Nokia officials refused to give details. In India, Nokia has received over six million calls. Of these, about 4.6 per cent batteries were found from the batch for which advisory was issued.

Nokia’s worldwide CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo had yesterday said: “We are investigating into the matter. But of course, they (Matsushita) are responsible to us.”

Any Nokia consumer who is currently using a Nokia product containing a BL-5C battery subject to the product advisory can seek a replacement battery free of charge, the company said in the communication released worldwide. — PTI

New Delhi, August 24
MTNL today won a case on income tax refund of about Rs 1,100 crore, including Rs 150 crore interest.

A senior MTNL official said the Income Tax Department had earlier claimed a penalty of 850 crore against which the PSU had gone to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.

The tribunal today ordered that MTNL would not have to pay any penalty and would be refunded Rs 1,100 crore, including 150 crore as interest.

Chandigarh, August 24
Daimler Chrysler India today presented the premium Mercedes Benz CL-Class for the Indian market in Chandigarh. Managing director and CEO of Daimler Chrysler India, Wilfried Aulbur, unveiled the car together with the director marketing Sanjiv Sahajwala.

The new CL 500 is priced at Rs 1.1 crore, while the CL 600 is priced at Rs 1.6 crore.

Stating that India was one of its largest markets in near future, Dr Aulbur said that around 2,500 Mercedes were sold in India annually while Ludhiana accounted for 550 of them. Daimler Chrysler India has recently announced a retail finance scheme “start choice” for its cars in collaboration with ICICI Bank.