India reminds EU of WTO commitments on Mittal issue
New Delhi: India has put pressure on the European Union to take up the issue of Laxmi Niwas Mittal's take-over bid of Luxembourg-based Arcelor. New Delhi has warned EU that attempts to thwart the acquisition violated WTO rules.

Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath said the EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson has assured him that he would take up the issue with the European Commission.

Nath said he wrote to Mendelson saying the issue was a question of providing cross border investment a national treatment, a commitment EU has given in the WTO negotiations. Nath said he took up the issue particularly after the manner in which French authorities reacted on the issue.

Luxembourg authorities have said that merchant banker Morgan Stanley has been appointed to go into the $22.3 billion offer to buy Arcelor.
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Governmentt not to review power tariff policy
New Delhi: The power ministry has overruled objections by private firms and regulators on the national tariff policy, and has asked private players to 'remove mind blocks' and develop projects on their balance sheets without Government guarantees.

Private companies have objected to the policy on the grounds that it provides undue advantage to public sector companies such as NTPC by exempting them for five years from following a tariff-based competitive bidding route. Private entities, on the other hand, would have to follow it with immediate effect. The industry body CII has charged the ministry with failing to differentiate between its role as owner of state-run companies and its role as a policy making body for the entire industry.

The CII also alleged that there were contradictions between the national electricity policy, announced in February 2005, and national tariff policy.
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PSU bank CEOs, staff to get paid on performance
Mumbai: Heads of 29 public sector banks will now get a performance-linked annual incentive package. Apart from this, all of them will get a lumpsum ex-gratia payment on retirement, depending on the number of years they put in as directors on bank boards. Going ahead, close to 800,000 employees in the public sector banking industry, too, will get incentives, based on their performance in five key areas.

The finance ministry is expected to announce the package before the Budget.

According to sources, the five parameters based on which the performance incentive for employees will be worked out include credit growth, deposit mobilisation, quality of assets and recovery of non-performing assets. The maximum amount a bank can pay to employees through this route will be capped at 1 per cent of a bank's profit after tax (PAT). Based on last year's performance, State Bank of India will be able to spend around Rs 43 crore on this package. For Punjab National Bank, it will be around Rs 14 crore.

Employees of all departments will be considered for the package, which will be independent of a bank's performance on the bourses. Employees of three unlisted public sector banks will be covered by this package along with the employees of the listed entities.

Depending on their tenure as directors, they will get ex-gratia payment on retirement. Besides, they will also get performance-linked annual bonus which can run into over Rs 5 lakh, depending on a CEO's performance.
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