Pak PM promises progress on gas pipeline
Islamabad: Embarking on a three-day trip to Teheran, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said he expects significant progress on the Indo-Iran gas pipeline project.

"There will be a lot of progress on the gas pipeline project. It is our endeavour that Iran, Pakistan and India take this project forward," Aziz, who left for Tehran, told reporters. The gas pipeline project would bring Iran and Pakistan "closer" and India too could benefit from it.

"The three countries can create a situation where it (project) is beneficial to the economies of the three," he added.

During his visit he will hold talks with President Sayyed Mohammad Khatami and First Vice President Dr. Mohammad Reza Aref. Besides discussing the gas project.
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New norms for PSU banks
New Delhi: The Govt.'s new initiative on PSU banks will now allow them to open new branches overseas without seeking government approval and also allow them to get rid of unprofitable businesses.

The govt.'s move will allow PSU banks much more autonomy. Banks can now take direct decisions on:

• Opening overseas branches
  
• Entering new lines of business like insurance, project finance and mutual funds - these can be done directly or through new subsidiaries
  
• Shutting down any business or branch that is found unviable
  The aim is to make PSU banks more efficient in the extremely competitive environment created by the highly innovative private banks.

But even as banks will be allowed to raise money from the stock markets through public issues and take decisions on merging with other banks, the government's stake will not be allowed to fall below 51 per cent.

However, the banks will have to fulfill certain conditions before they can avail more autonomy to frame their own recruitment and promotion policies, decide pay scales and give incentives based on an employees performance. The banks should have earned net profits over the last three years, have a capital adequacy ratio of 9 per cent or more with Non-Performing Assets of not more than 4 per cent. They would also need minimum owned funds of Rs300 crore.
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CERC streamlines open access norms
New Delhi: The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has announced streamlining of the norms for seeking open access in inter-State transmission, with the regulator introducing a monthly timetable for advance reservation of transmission capacity.

In its amendments to the open access regime, which will be applicable from April 1 this year, the regulator has also proposed part-day transmission charges to reduce the cost of wheeling peaking power.

Under the part-day charges introduced by CERC, the transmission cost for short-terms customers is only a fourth of the daily charges, if they use the transmission lines for six hours or less in a day. Similarly, for usage of up to 12 hours a day, only half of the per-day charges shall be applied, a CERC release said.

Under the monthly timetable that has been introduced for the grant of transmission access to short-term customers, there will be a provision for advance reservation of lines for three months.

In line with the original open access norms applicable from February 1 last year, transmission customers have been divided into two categories - long-term and short-term. A long-term customer will be allowed access based on the transmission planning criteria stipulated in the Indian Electricity Grid Code.

Allotment priority of long-term customers will be higher than that of short-term customers. Short-term customers will be the first ones to be curtailed in the event of transmission constraint, according to the norms.
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