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.
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.
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.
Despite NMDC raising iron ore prices by 10%, major steel firms say they will follow suit if demand increases
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.
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of its stake in RINL within next two years and list the firm on bourses or else the PSU's status of Navratna will be withdrawn.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.
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.
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.
Tata Steel has committed itself to maintain prices till March 2005.
It was touted as a game changer but big-ticket privatisation has been a mixed bag as the government faces unanticipated challenges of lukewarm investor response, employee union agitation and legal hurdles. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's often-repeated statement 'the government has no business to be in business' guided the drawing up of an ambitious privatisation pipeline. While Air India sale succeeded, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) divestment failed.
On June 30, mining and metals giant Vedanta, announced that it had decided to initiate a strategic review of its steel and steel-making raw material businesses. The review would begin immediately and evaluate a broad range of options, including but not limited to a potential strategic sale of some or all of the steel businesses, the company said in its stock exchange filing. The signs have been there - approaches had been made to steel players over the past year. Last December, Anil Agarwal, chairman Vedanta group, told Business Standard that the steel plant capacity was about 3 million tonnes (mt).
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.
With Lok Sabha polls not too far away, Congress President Sonia Gandhi signalled that the ambitious Food Security and Land Acquisition Acts brought in by the Centre would give a new deal to the people, especially the farmers and the poor.
Uniparts India and PNC Infratech are the latest companies to file initial public offer papers.
At present, seven companies are planning to raise Rs 2,965 crore (Rs 29.65 billion) and have Sebi's approval. Another 12 firms, intending to mop-up Rs 5,362 crore (Rs 53.62 billion), have filed draft documents with the capital market watchdog and are awaiting approval, Prime Database managing director Pranav Haldea said.
During the first quarter ended June, 2014-15 fiscal, LIC earned a total premium of Rs 14,016 crore.
Despite crude comfort, heavy spending cuts needed to offset Rs 80k-cr revenue shortfall
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