Pak-Iran pipeline pact leaves India out in cold
Islamabad: Pakistan and Iran have agreed to lay a bilateral gas pipeline with 33 per cent higher supplies to Islamabad. This agreement is likely to leave India out in the cold as it would make it difficult for India to remain a part of the multibillion dollar tri-nation Iran Pakistan India (IPI) gas project due to capacity constraints.

Pakistan has increased its off-take of gas from the pipeline from 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) to 2.8 bcfd, making it difficult for the pipeline to accommodate India's demand, as the capacity of the proposed 2,600 km long pipeline is only 3.2 bcfd.

Iranian deputy oil minister Hadi Nejad Hosseinian and Pakistan's petroleum secretary Ahmad Waqar said at a joint press conference here yesterday that India could be accommodated through a second pipeline if it was interested in going ahead with the IPI.

According to the earlier arrangement, India was to draw two thirds of the gas while the remaining one third was to go to Pakistan. In the past, the three sides had considered the option of laying a 56-inch pipeline with a capacity to carry 150 million standard cubic meters of natural gas from the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and India everyday.

Waqar said there could also be a possibility of two parallel pipelines meeting India's requirements as well as Pakistan's. He also said Pakistan may offer Iranian gas to China as part of Islamabad's efforts to provide an energy corridor to its ally.
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India offers import duty sops to Singapore under FTA
New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has increased import duty concessions to 4,500 items to meet the tariff elimination or reduction commitments undertaken in the comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) with Singapore. Under the free trade agreement (FTA) on goods, part of the CECA, import tariffs on items in the phased elimination list have to be eliminated in five stages leading up to zero tariffs from April 1, 2009.

The percentage reduction is expressed as a margin of preference over the most favoured nation (MFN) applied rates. For the phased reduction list, the FTA specified that tariffs would be reduced in five stages leading to tariffs equivalent to 50 per cent of MFN from April 1, 2009.

The CECA with Singapore came into effect from August 1, 2005.

The Government has increased the level of duty concession from 10 per cent to 25 per cent for the phased elimination list and has also increased the level of concession from 5 per cent to 10 per cent for the phased reduction list. The bilateral trade between Singapore and India stood at $6.409 billion in 2004-05, up from $2.341 billion in 2000-01. The balance of trade was tilted in favour of India at $1.24 billion in 2004-05. India's imports from Singapore increased from $1.464 billion in 2000-01 to $2.584 billion in 2004-05.
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AP gets Rs.404-cr VAT compensation
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Government has received a compensation of Rs404.06 crore from the Union Government up to January 2006 for the loss suffered due to the implementation of VAT (Value-Added Tax). AP's commercial department fell short of the annual target of Rs12,706.16 crore and registered collections of Rs12,534.41 crore during 2005-06, leaving a shortfall of Rs171.75 crore.

And due to the compensation from the Centre, the department could achieve 101.82 per cent of the target. The department collected Rs1,511.81 crore more than last year's revenues, achieving a growth rate of 13.72 per cent.
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Sri Lanka looks at 1.5 lakh Indian tourists
Bangalore: The Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) is targeting higher tourist arrivals from India to 1.5 lakh this year. Last year, 1.13 lakh Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka an increase of 7.8 per cent over the previous year. As over 20 per cent tourists into Sri Lanka are Indians, the SLTB has drawn many plans to increase their number.

According to SLTB statistics, over 40 per cent of Indian travellers are repeat visitors and over 60 per cent belong to the high-end segment. The average spending by an Indian is $ 75-80, mainly on shopping, food, entertainment and sightseeing.

As part of the campaign, the SLTB in association with Sri Lankan Airlines, is offering tourist packages to various destinations. Besides this, the country is also providing visa on arrival to the tourists.
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