The government should scrap the windfall profit tax on domestically produced crude oil as the levy is adversely impacting the capex-intensive exploration of oil and gas, the industry said in its recommendation for the forthcoming annual Budget. India first imposed windfall profit taxes on July 1, joining a growing number of nations that tax super normal profits of energy companies. At that time, a Rs 23,250 per tonne ($40 per barrel) windfall profit tax on domestic crude production was levied.
Mumbai-based Indian Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ISMC) and Singapore-headquartered IGSS Ventures have one strategy in common: They have told the government in their application for semiconductor fabrication plants that they will export the bulk of the chips they make in India in the initial five or 10 years. The third applicant, Vedanta-Foxconn, which is also building a fab plant, has said it will concentrate on the needs of consumer electronics and mobile device markets, and earmark 80 per cent of output for domestic consumption, but has not specified its customers. Finding a viable domestic market could well be the biggest challenge for India's renewed tryst with semiconductors. Fab plants do not sell directly to end users but to intermediary chip design companies - such as Qualcomm or MediaTek.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in public sector refiners, expanding the scope for FDI in the privatisation of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL). The approval by the Cabinet will enable the sale of the government's 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL to a foreign buyer, and, at the same time, will open the door for FDI in other public sector companies in the oil sector put up for privatisation.
When the world was upended by the Covid-19 pandemic, metals got its shine back. In the last two years, infrastructure spending by major economies spurred demand, energy transition and intermittent supply disruptions fuelled a scorching rally in metals after a downturn during the first Covid wave. Now, Russia's war on Ukraine is ensuring that elevated prices stay the course.
If reports that Apple Inc plans to triple its iPhone production in India come true, it is likely to help the country become a supply hub for the American company. There are some 190 Apple suppliers globally, but only 12 have manufacturing facilities in India now. Apple's strategy is to focus on India and a clutch of other countries as it diversifies its supply chain out of China.
How the business world celebrated Christmas!
The government will settle almost all the retrospective tax cases this month, closing a chapter that plagued India's reputation as an investment-friendly destination, a top official said on Friday. A 2012 amendment that gave taxmen powers to go back 50 years and slap capital gains levies wherever ownership had changed hands overseas but business assets were in India, was used to raise Rs 1.1 lakh crore demand against multi-nationals such as telecom group Vodafone, pharmaceuticals company Sanofi and brewer SABMiller, now owned by AB InBev, and Cairn Energy Plc. Such demands brought uncertainty in the minds of investors.
If the waxy crude oil from Cairn's Mangala field in Rajasthan's Barmer area could get the company such high valuations, the prospects of other companies producing higher-grade crude oil or natural gas certainly brighten.
Permission should be denied before the start of the refinery. To do so now is unfair and damaging to the government's reputation, says Nilmadhab Mohanty.
Top gainers in the Sensex pack included Vedanta, M&M, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti, rising up to 3.79 per cent.
The government has received three preliminary bids for buying of controlling stake in India's second-largest fuel retailer Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. Mining-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta had on November 18 confirmed putting in an expression of interest (EoI) for buying the government's 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL. The other two bidders are said to be global funds, one of them being Apollo Global Management.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S K Kaul said the case will be heard on January 8.
Indian companies are planning to increase investments in the new year to expand capacity, acquire companies, and go on a hiring spree, a survey of top executives showed. They, however, cited rising costs, weak consumer demand, and increasing interest rates as major concerns for 2023 which may impact their plans.
The government may be waiting for the outcome of an arbitration initiated against its levy of Rs 10,247 crore retrospective tax on UK's Cairn Energy Plc before deciding on appealing against losing a tax case against Vodafone Group, sources said. An international arbitral tribunal is expected to give a decree within next few days on Cairn Energy Plc's challenge to the Indian government seeking Rs 10,247 crore in retrospective taxes. If the arbitration award in the Cairn cases goes against India, the government has to pay the British firm over Rs 7,600 crore to reverse the dividend and tax refund it had ceased and shares it sold to recover part of the tax demand.
India's top oil and gas producer ONGC on Friday reported a tripling of net profit in the June quarter as it earned record prices before the government slapped a tax on windfall profits arising from a global rally in energy rates. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) standalone net profit at Rs 15,205.85 crore, or Rs 12.09 per share, in April-June, compared to Rs 4,334.75 crore, or Rs 3.45 a share, in the same period a year back, according to a stock exchange filing by the company. Sequentially, the profit was higher than the Rs 8,859.54 crore net profit of January-March.
Eleven bidders, including Adani Enterprises, have shown interest in the first-ever coal import tender issued by national miner Coal India (CIL). Recently, state-owned NTPC awarded 6.25 million tonnes (mt) of imported coal tender worth Rs 8,300 crore to Adani Enterprises. CIL, in a public statement on Tuesday, said: "The prominent Indian agencies among them (11 coal importers) were Adani Enterprises, Mohit Minerals, and Chettinad Logistics. "A couple of coal exporting agencies from abroad, including one from Indonesia, have also shown interest," it said.
The windfall tax on oil produced within India and fuel exported overseas will make up for more than three-fourths of the revenue that the government lost when it cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to cool soaring inflation, industry sources said. India on July 1 joined a select league of nations globally that have taxed windfall gains accruing to oil companies from soaring energy prices. The government slapped a Rs 6 per litre tax on the export of petrol and jet fuel (ATF) and Rs 13 a litre on the export of diesel effective July 1. Additionally, a Rs 23,250 per tonne tax was levied on crude oil produced domestically.
Among the Sensex stocks, Tata Motors emerged as the top gainer, rising by 7 per cent. Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, Vedanta Ltd and Tata Steel were among the gainers.
On the Sensex chart, Yes Bank was the worst hit with 7.81 per cent decline. It was followed by Tata Steel, Vedanta, M&M, IndusInd Bank and Tata Motors -- shedding as much as 5.07 per cent.
A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman said it is allowing Tamil Nadu's appeal against the National Green Tribunal order only on grounds of maintainability.
Top losers in the Sensex pack included Sun Pharma, Vedanta, ONGC, TCS, HUL, ITC, NTPC, Asian Paints and Infosys, shedding up to 4.23 per cent.
A special court had ordered him to join the CBI investigation within 16 hours of his arrival from the United Kingdom and Europe, where he had gone with the permission of the Supreme Court and the special court itself.
The government will undertake a detailed evaluation of applications it has received in response to the mega semiconductor scheme and expects to complete the entire process and sign agreements with companies in next 8-10 months, according to Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw. Vaishnaw said he is happy with the response that came in within a short period of time, when the ministry invited applications under the Rs 76,000 crore semiconductor programme. The government is confident of seeing one of the big global players in semiconductor industry coming in the next round, Vaishnaw told PTI in an interview. He asserted that many other players too are "seriously evaluating" India's semiconductor programme, and that the ministry is in discussions with several companies.
Faced with one setback after another in expanding the scope of mining in the country, almost all the major miners of the world have wound down their operations in India.
Yes Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding 2.50 per cent, followed by HUL that fell 2.37 per cent, M&M 2.12 per cent, SBI 2.03 per cent, Tata Motors 2.03 per cent and Vedanta 1.97 per cent.
All nine Adani stocks saw a rise in their share price in H1FY23, ranging from 6.1% in case of Adani Ports to 102% in case of Adani Power.
Swami Swaroopanand, who was the Shankracharya of Dwarka, Sharda, and Jyotish Peeth, was not keeping well for over a year, his aide said.
Bhupendra Patel can never really break free of intervention from New Delhi. But if he can win over the Gujaratis and improve the BJP's tally substantially, he will have proved that he should be taken seriously.
India's GDP expanded 13.5 per cent in the April-June quarter, the quickest pace in a year, to retain the world's fastest growing economy tag but rising interest costs and the looming threat of a recession in major world economies could slow the momentum in the coming quarters.
Vedanta, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, ONGC, M&M, Maruti, NTPC and HUL too fell up to 4.06 per cent.
The Madras high court on Tuesday rejected a plea from mining giant Vedanta to order reopening of its Sterlite copper unit at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.
Among major gainers, Vedanta rose the most by 6.55 per cent, snapping its five-day losing streak.
Top laggards in the Sensex pack were Vedanta, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, Tata Steel, ONGC, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, M&M, TCS and Hero MotoCorp, dropping up to 5.39 per cent.
Top gainers in the Sensex pack included Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, RIL, ITC, Vedanta, Asian Paints, HDFC and Infosys, advancing up to 3.02 per cent.
Top gainers in the Sensex pack on Friday included IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, M&M, SBI, ICICI Bank and Vedanta, rising up to 1.90 per cent.
Leonard Barsoton of Kenya and Ethiopia-based Bahraini athlete Desi Jisa set new course records in the men's and women's elite international section en route to winning titles at the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K marathon.
Among the Sensex constituents, Tata Motors was the biggest loser with 6.52 per cent fall, followed by Vedanta 5.09 per cent, Bajaj Auto 4.99 per cent, Maruti Suzuki 4.26 per cent and Tata Steel 2.65 per cent.
ITC was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding 1.97 per cent, followed by Tata Steel 1.80 per cent, HUL 1.57 per cent, Vedanta 1.44 per cent, Bharti Airtel 1.37 per cent and M&M 1.35 per cent.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd climbed two spots to No. 53 on Forbes' latest Global 2000 list of public companies worldwide. Forbes Global 2000 ranks the largest companies in the world using four metrics: sales, profits, assets and market value, Forbes said releasing the 2022 ranking of the world's top 2,000 companies. Reliance is the top-ranked Indian firm on the list, followed by State Bank of India at No. 105, HDFC Bank at No. 153 and ICICI Bank at No. 204.
After rallying over 300 points, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 169.14 points, or 0.42 per cent, higher at 40,581.71. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty settled 61.65 points, or 0.52 per cent, higher at 11,971.80.
