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MSEB to be split into four units
Mumbai: Maharashtra State Electricity Board will now be divided into four parts - one parent holding company and three subsidiaries for generation, transmission and distribution.

Though the government says the move will make the MSEB more efficient, the unions are threatening statewide protests saying that this is a backdoor way of privatising MSEB.

Union leaders will meet in the next few days to plot their future course of action.
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Hefty rise in investment limits for PSU power projects
New Delhi: The government has decided to increase the investment limit for PSUs to set up power projects from Rs200 crore to Rs1,500 crore. This is the amount for which the PSUs will not require cabinet clearance for setting up a power project.

Sources in the Power Ministry have said that this decision taken by the Group of Ministers (power) will enable public sector power companies to set up power plants and start commissioning of projects at a much faster pace.

A cabinet note is being firmed up and the matter will be put up before the cabinet soon.

During the negotiations for restart of the Dabhol Power Plant, NTPC had said that it cannot put in equity worth Rs435 crore in the Dabhol SPV before a clearance by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

This decision is being seen as a move to remove one of the last bottlenecks to an early restart of the Dabhol Project.
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Centre's fiscal deficit up 1.6 per cent
New Delhi: Centre's fiscal deficit is up marginally by 1.6 per cent at Rs1,27,975 crore during 2004-05 from Rs1,25,960 crore in 2003-04.

Revenue deficit, however, came down significantly by 19 per cent at Rs79,558 crore in 2004-05 from Rs98,308 crore in 2003-04, as per the figures released by Controller General of Accounts.

Fiscal deficit at Rs1,27,975 crore (4.1 per cent of GDP),was much lower than the revised estimate of Rs1,39,231 crore (4.5 per cent) but higher than Rs1,25,960 crore recorded during 2003-04. Revenue deficit was lower at Rs79,558 crore (2.5 per cent of GDP) than the targeted Rs85,165 crore (2.7 per cent) and that from Rs98,308 crore of 2003-04.

Total receipts have increased to Rs3,70,473 crore during the fiscal compared to the revised estimate of Rs3,66,560 crore, mainly on account of higher non-tax revenues. Tax collections are marginally lower at Rs2,24,857 crore compared to the targeted Rs2,25,804 crore. Non-tax revenues amounted to Rs80,330 crore during the fiscal compared to the estimated Rs75,100 crore.

On the spending side, plan expenditure amounted to Rs1,32,160 crore last fiscal, which is a significantly lower than the estimated Rs1,37,387 crore. Non-plan expenditures were at Rs3,66,288 crore which was lower than estimated Rs3,68,404 crore.
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Aiyer: National response plan for reducing energy intensity
New Delhi: The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mani Shankar Aiyar, has pledged to formulate a national response plan for reducing the unsustainably high energy intensity in the domestic economy and achieving energy-efficiency through a public-private-panchayat-partnership.

Addressing a two-day international ESCO (Energy Service Company) conference, the Minister said that environmental-friendly and energy-efficient technologies must be brought to the doorstep of the domestic farmers and micro units. "There is no better institution in the country to deliver such technologies to the end-user than the three million elected representatives at the village, intermediate and district levels," Aiyar said.
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Steel and aluminium companies cut prices with drop in global rates
New Delhi: Following international trends, domestic steel and aluminium manufacturers on Wednesday have announced reduction in prices in the range of Rs500 to Rs2,500 per tonne.

The Steel Authority of India Ltd has announced a reduction of Rs500 to Rs1,500 per tonne for long products and around Rs2,000 for hot-rolled flat steel. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd has also effected a price cut of around Rs1,500, industry sources said.

The largest private sector steel manufacturer Tata Steel has already sounded its customers that it would effect a price cut similar to SAIL.

The other three private sector manufacturers, namely Essar Steel, Ispat Industries and Jindal Vijayanagar, have also reduced prices of hot-rolled steel by around Rs1,500-2,000 per tonne, industry officials said.

In the case of aluminium, National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) has also announced a reduction of Rs2,500 per tonne because of weakening of aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange over the past few months. Following Nalco's announcement, private sector producer Hindustan Aluminium Company Ltd has also announced that it will cut prices.
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