The matter has now been escalated and the ministry has written to Customs, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to investigate it thoroughly.
The Supreme Court has ruled that motor vehicle tax is not applicable if a vehicle is not used or kept for use in a 'public place'. The ruling came on an appeal challenging a judgement of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who won a landslide election victory in May largely on a promise of economic growth, is expected to speed up divestments to bolster revenue generation.
The government has tweaked the income tax laws to make it easier for the new owners of loss-making public sector undertakings (PSUs) to carry forward the accumulated losses and set them off against future profits. This will result in significant tax savings for the new owners if they are able to turnaround operations of the ailing PSU within a few years. This will, in turn, boost the post-tax earnings and returns for the new owners.
With general elections on the horizon, the government's privatisation bandwagon has almost but stalled as a government wary of being accused of selling family silver opts for minority stake sales on stock exchanges over outright privatisation. The result -- the divestment target for current fiscal year is again likely to be missed. Big ticket privatisation plans such as that of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and CONCOR are already on the backburner and analysts feel meaningful privatisation can happen only after April/May general elections.
Five Indian metals and mining companies are in the race for acquiring mining rights for the largest iron ore deposit in war-torn Afghanistan. The government has shortlisted Vedanta group's Sesa Goa, Essar Minerals, Ispat Industries, JSW Steel and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam for a bid for the 1.8 billion tonne Hajigak iron ore deposit.
Despite NMDC raising iron ore prices by 10%, major steel firms say they will follow suit if demand increases
A little over a year before, when the Hajigak iron ore deposit was put up for grabs, at least five companies - Essar Minerals, JSW Steel, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, Sesa Goa and Ispat Industries - had evinced interest.
Major steel producers, including SAIL and Tata Steel, on Monday agreed to cut prices of TMT bars, galvanised steel and HR coils after the government asked them to contain prices to keep inflation under check.
Top corporates and banks, including Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, SAIL and SBI, have paid lower advance taxes during the July-September quarter reflecting the impact of slowdown.
State-run RITES provides engineering, consultancy and project management services in transport infrastructure sector under single roof.
The death toll in last week's explosion at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) has gone up to 17, with one of the injured officials succumbing to injuries on Wednesday.
If the proposal gets Cabinet clearance, the disinvestment is likely to follow the initial public offering of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, for which the prospectus has already been filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
A new government has taken office in Australia, which has said it will review its predecessor's controversial proposal for a 40 per cent super-profit tax on mining revenues.
The joint venture agreement is likely to be signed before the end of the current year and once that is done, tendering for the plant and machinery will follow, he said, adding this might take place before the end of the current fiscal.
RINL is among the few firms that had effected price hikes, both in the current month and in the previous one.
RINL, whose two coking coal blocks in Jharkhand -- Mahal allocated in 2005 and Tenughat-Jhirki allocated in 2008 -- were de-allocated by the Coal Ministry at the beginning of this month, had earlier requested permission to surrender these blocks in lieu of two alternative blocks in the region.
Steel Ministry is unwilling to sell shares at lower than the present book value of Rs 22.50 a share. Merchant bankers UBS Securities and Deutsche Equities (India) have proposed Rs 15-17 as the price band.
The government on Monday said it will kickstart its ambitious Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) divestment programme with stake sale in RINL this month.
Facing deficit of minerals within, Indian entities are increasingly looking for buying assets abroad.
A senior official from the Department of Disinvestment told Business Standard it was decided in a meeting on Thursday that the fresh date for RINL's IPO would be in the third or fourth week of July.
The companies that have signed these pacts with the India chapter of the Berlin-based Transparency International include PSU majors such as GAIL (India), Coal India, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Steel, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Steel Authority of India, National Mineral Development Corporation and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam. In fact, 12 of the 14 companies that signed the pact, did so in the last six months.
SAIL and RINL at present produce about 18 million tonnes of the commodity. Navratna mining giant NMDC is in the process of setting up a three million tonnes per annum (MTPA)-steel unit in Chhattisgarh. Despite the prevailing economic slowdown, the expansion programmes of these public sector entities are going on full swing, Rastogi said, adding that SAIL is likely to hit the capital market to raise funds for the capacity augmentation.
RINL is in the process of adding steel-making capacity at its lone facility in Vizag through revamping its existing blast furnaces, converters, sinter plant and others to take its 2.9 mtpa existing capacity to 7.3 mtpa by 2014-15.
India's public sector steel companies will spend a whopping Rs 230 crore (Rs 2.30 billion) on corporate social responsibility to build 'Model Steel Villages' across the country during the current financial year.
Entire outlay would be funded through internal and extra budgetary resources, it added.
Taking forward the drive to sell stake in state-owned firms, the Finance Ministry has asked the Ministry of Steel to divest about 10 per cent of its stake in RINL within next two years and list the firm on bourses or else the PSU's status of Navratna will be withdrawn.
Tata Steel has increased spot prices Rs 300 to Rs 500 a tonne on some long products, while public sector steel producer RINL has increased rebar prices by Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 a tonne. Rebars, which are also long products, are currently ruling at Rs 32,000-33,000 a tonne. C G Patil, director (commercial), RINL, said this was the first increase since July-August, when prices started dropping. The increase was on the back of lower production owing to power cuts.
The Union Power Ministry has selected Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (Visakhapatnam Steel Plant) for the National Energy Conservation Award 2002, first prize in the integrated steel plants sector.\n\n\n\n
The government's ambitious plan to make Steel Authority of India Limited a mega PSU may hit a roadblock with several smaller PSUs under the Steel Ministry expressing unwillingness to merge with the steel behemoth.
The state-run firm has invited about 45 lenders -- both domestic and international -- to present its future vision in Mumbai on the first week of the next month.
Tata Steel has committed itself to maintain prices till March 2005.
JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India, Bhushan Steel, Essar Steel, Jindal Steel & Power, and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam are among the top producers of the alloy in the domestic market
The IPO of state-owned steel maker RINL is scheduled to hit the markets in the current fiscal, and the Cabinet has already accorded its approval for the stake sale.
The move will help increase participation of retail investors, providing momentum to the primary market.
These include Great Eastern Energy Corporation and Shemaroo Entertainment.
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