PACL group firm’s plea to defreeze a/cs rejected

New Delhi: Markets regulator SEBI on Thursday rejected the plea of Pearls Infrastructure Projects, majority owned by PACL, to defreeze its bank accounts for payment of statutory and other dues. The move comes after Pearls Infrastructure Projects Ltd (PIPL) requested SEBI’s recovery officer to defreeze the bank accounts. The company said it has outstanding salary payments with respect to current and ex-employees. Also, there are outstanding statutory dues like corporate tax, service tax, property tax and employee provident fund, among others. In an order passed on Thursday, SEBI “disallowed the representation made by PIPL to defreeze the bank accounts for payments of statutory and other dues”. PTI

30% import duty on chana, masoor dal

New Delhi: The government on Thursday imposed a hefty 30% import duty on chana and masoor dal to curb cheaper shipments and boost local prices that have fallen in view of record domestic production. “To protect interest of farmers, the government has decided to impose 30% import duty on chana and masoor with immediate effect,” the Finance Ministry said. The production of chana and masoor is expected to be high during this rabi season. “... cheap imports, if allowed unabated are likely to adversely affect the farmers,” the ministry said, while giving reason to raise import duty. At present, tur dal attracts 10% import duty. Further, the government has recently imposed 50% import duty on yellow peas. Other pulses, however, attract zero duty.  TNS

Airtel allowed to conduct e-KYC till January 10

New Delhi: The Aadhaar-issuing body UIDAI on Thursday allowed Bharti Airtel to conduct e-KYC verification for its telecom subscribers till January 10 with stiff riders but maintained its ‘suspension’ order on Airtel Payments Bank. Airtel, the India’s largest telecom company with 282 million subscribers, got the temporary reprieve with conditions after Rs 138 crore Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) was repaid into 55.63 lakh original accounts of its customers, sources privy to the development said. The second interim order to this effect has been passed by the UIDAI keeping in view convenience of customers and also the looming March 31 deadline given by the Supreme Court for mobile SIM re-verification. The authority will take a view on the issue after it receives a report from the RBI and the Telecom Department on January 10.  PTI

Govt considering hike in import duty on wheat

New Delhi: The government is considering raising import duty on wheat from the current 20% to boost sowing in the ongoing rabi season and support domestic prices, sources said. Last month, the government had doubled the import duty on wheat to 20% to curb cheap shipments and give positive price signal to farmers in the rabi season. It was raised as private traders imported about 1 million tonnes of wheat since April at 10% duty. According to sources, the government is looking to raise import duty further to boost sowing operations and support local prices. As per the latest data from the agriculture ministry, wheat acreage declined to 245.50 lakh hectares as on December 15 in the ongoing rabi season from 250.48 lakh hectares during the corresponding period of the previous year. PTI