Spurt in
cement sales in April
Mumbai: Cement majors
Larsen & Toubro and Gujarat Ambuja have shown higher cement sales of 12 to 13 per cent
in April. Grasim Industries also saw an increase of 9 per cent. The lone exception was
ACC, which reported a 1.33 per cent drop in sales.
The
increase in sales come in line with the pre-monsoon growth in construction activities.
Added to this has been the increase in offtake in Gujarat, where rehabilitation activity
is said to have begun.
Meanwhile, the cement
prices in Mumbai fell to Rs 171-173 per 50 kg bag as a result of discounts offered to the
dealers by the cement majors, while holding on to the official price levels at Rs 182 per
bag.
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GE rethink on
DPC
Mumbai:
Now, General Electric, equipment supplier and 10 per cent shareholder in Dabhol Power
Company is likely to withdraw.
Following the controversy
where DPC is threatened with stoppage of funds from lenders in view of the likely
termination of the 2,184 MW power project, GE is worried about future payments, although
DPC is yet to default on payments to GE.
Bechtel, the EPC
contractor and 10 per cent shareholder had earlier threatened to stop further work.
What is worrying General
Electric is the scenario after June 7, when about 700 mw power will be commissioned after
the second phase trial runs. After the second phase of 1,444 mw is commissioned by
December, 2001, MSEB will have to pay DPC a minimum of Rs 500 crore per month. The escrow
account for this has not been made operational by the state electricity board, which has
absolved itself of all liabilities after DPC invoked the political force majeure clause in
its contract with the board.
Hence, payments to Bechtel
and GE could hang fire.
The lenders to the project
are also worried, since DPC has virtually refused to negotiate with the Godbole panel, set
up by the Maharashtra government to renegotiate the second phase of the contract.
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DoT to issue
amended LoIs for basic services
New Delhi: Fresh letters
of intent may be given to prospective basic telecom operators Reliance, Tata and Himachal
Futuristic Communications, including the recommendations made by the group on telecom and
information technology (GoT-IT) in its report on limited mobility.
The three companies were issued 40 LoIs for basic telecom licences about a month ago. With
the rules for limited mobility changing, new licences would be given, reflecting the new
roll-out obligations and penalty for non-compliance of the licensing conditions suggested
by GoT-IT.
These conditions
include equal coverage of three short distance charging areas, namely, rural, semi-urban
and urban, performance bank guarantees for compliance, but not the suggestion of reducing
revenue share in long distance from 60 to 5 per.
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Reliance
allowed third party sale of power
Mumbai: Reliance is
allowed to sell power, generated at its 447 MW power project at Patalganga, directly to
third parties, even outside the state, if the Maharashtra State electricity Board does not
lift the power generated. The power purchase agreement signed by Reliance with the
Maharashtra government has a clause to this effect, according to Reliance.
Thereby, the group
could sell power to industrial and commercial customers within and outside Maharashtra.
Since the state electricity board gets 80 per cent of its revenues from such consumers,
Reliance could emerge as a potential rival to MSEB.
This freedom is seen as a
departure from existing norms, where, except in captive power plants, and in some
renewable energy sectors like wind energy, independent power producers can sell power only
to state electricity boards. They can sell power outside the state only if they qualify
for mega power project status, where the minimum capacity should be above 1000 MW. With
its 447-mw capacity, the Patalganga project is hardly eligible.
The government's
permission is also viewed askance in the light of its stand on the Dabhol power project,
where it is yet to agree to third party sale of power by the Dabhol Power Company, which
application has been pending with it for months. It is only now, in the face of threat of
closure of the project, that the government is willing to consider third party sale as
suggested by the Godbole committee.
The Patalganga project
along with the Ispat groups 1,082 mw Bhadravati project has been put on hold till
the Godbole committee submits its second report.
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MRTP slaps
notices on TV channels
New Delhi: Major TV
channels including STAR TV, Sony, El Zee, Discovery, News TV, Turner International, ESPN
and Modi Entertainment have been issued notices by the Monopolies & Restrictive Trade
Practices Commission for their alleged restrictive trade practices by "hiking
subscribers fees frequently and arbitrarily".
MRTPC had received four complaints against these TV networks, from Jammu Communications
Network, Noida Network Systems, and Nirmal Jain.
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