Blair receives flak on Mittal links
London: The opposition in the British parliament accused British prime minister Tony Blair of helping Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal purchase 300-million-pound Romanian steel company in return for a 125,000-pound donation to the Labour Party.

The opposition members tabled a series of loaded questions in the British parliament related to the controversy.

They allege that Mittal and his company are not British and offer little to Britain and its economy, which makes it improper for a British prime minister to champion their cause.

Downing Street has denied any impropriety.
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Ex-Enron chairman refuses to testify
Washington: Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay, scheduled to testify under subpoena before Congress, will assert his right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions.

Two committees of the Congress have issued subpoenas compelling him to appear. Lay's colleague at Enron, former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling, testified last week.

Lay, who was a friend and political backer of President George W. Bush, has not spoken publicly about the Enron disaster since the company entered bankruptcy in December.
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Additional cess on crude oil likely
New Delhi: The finance ministry is contemplating levying an additional cess on domestic crude oil after dismantling of Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) from 1 April 2002.

While Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) would get market price from 1 April, the ministry of finance would separately work out the modalities to raise resources from the incremental gains accruing to them from the sale of indigenous crude.

Domestic oil companies currently pay a cess of Rs 900 per tonne to the government.
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LIC to sanction Rs 200 crore to Kerala
Mumbai: The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will sanction an additional Rs 200 crore to the Kerala government.

The funding had been withheld as LIC was examining whether or not the state government had paid up its past dues. Till date, LIC has extended Rs 259.65 crore to Kerala. The budgeted estimate for the current fiscal had been at Rs 191.58 crore. LIC's funding to state governments budgeted for the current fiscal stands at Rs 1,337.37 crore.
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Duty sops to refineries may continue
Mumbai: The government is planning to continue giving adequate duty protection to local refineries even after dismantling the administered pricing mechanism (APM). The government is working out various modalities of duty protection as the gross refining margins (GRMs) are expected to be adversely affected in the free market.

During the nine month period (April-December 2001), the GRM of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) stood at $2.4 per barrel, Reliance Petroleum at $5.3 per barrel, while refining margins of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation are understood to be around $2.4 and $2.3 per barrel, respectively.

The government is considering the duty protection option to provide a level playing field to refineries in view of the additional burden they will have to bear due to sales taxes, municipal taxes, turnover taxes on petroleum products.
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IT exports up 26 per cent
New Delhi: Indias electronics hardware and computer software exports have registered a 26.4 per cent growth in the first nine months of the current fiscal to Rs 33,429 crore from Rs 26,438 crore in the same period previous year.

The software exports which account for lions share of Indian IT exports, witnessed a jump of 30.7 per cent during April to December ending at Rs 25,500 crore, against Rs 19,500 crore in the year ago period.
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Mobile industry grows 75% in Jan
New Delhi: India's mobile phone industry kept up its pace of heady growth in January with subscriber base jumping nearly 75 per cent over the same month last year.

The industry had 5.725 million subscribers, up from 3.27 million at the end of January 2001 and 5.48 million subscribers at the end of 2001.

The industry added 246,281 users in January, led by the four main city markets of Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, which together added 93,070 customers.

This was 3 per cent less than the number of customers added in the previous month, but up 48 per cent over January 2001 levels.

Bharti Cellular recorded the highest increase of nearly 31,000 customers during the month. The country's telecom market with the lowest subscriber potential, called C circles, grew the fastest, but on a much lower subscriber base.

The subscriber base in C circles leapt 99 per cent while in the lucrative metro market, it grew 81 per cent.

The subscriber base in A circles grew 87 per cent while the B circle grew nearly 49 per cent.
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Prices of petrol, diesel may come down
New Delhi: Petroleum minister Ram Naik has indicated that prices of petrol and diesel may come down upon being freed from State control.

Prices of petrol and diesel under the present APM regime had been fixed taking into consideration international crude oil prices of $24 a barrel. But international crude prices have slumped in the aftermath of 11 September incidents in the US. The average import price during the first 10 months was $22.49 a barrel.
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Courier cos to come under Postal Board
New Delhi: The postal department is set to bring private courier operators under its regulation.

The Postal Board would be made the licensing authority for private courier operators. The obligations, suspension, appeal procedures and penalties are being provided for in the new Act for violations by the registered couriers. Provisions are also being made for punishing unauthorised persons from carrying/delivering mail.

The penalties include a two-year term in jail and Rs 25,000 in fine or both.
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Cigarette sales dip 11% in 2001
New Delhi: Market leader ITC along with Godfrey Philips India and VST have reported a 11 per cent drop in sales of cigarettes in the first nine months (April-December) of fiscal 2001-02.

According to industry estimates, sales would drop further. By the fiscal end, the total sales volumes would plummet by a hefty 15 per cent.

While the three tobacco companies together sold 88 billion sticks in April-March 2000-01, they sold 78.32 billion sticks in April-December 2001-02.

Against 92.4 billion sticks sold by ITC, VST and Godfrey Philips in 1998-99, sales of these companies dwindled by 4.1 per cent to 88.5 billion sticks in 1999-2000. These three companies account for about 95 per cent of total domestic sales.
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