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These measures would significantly improve the adverse price sentiments in respect of sugar and also boost liquidity of millers, facilitating the clearing up of cane arrears, the government said.
To help cash-starved sugar mills clear dues worth Rs 21,000 crore to farmers, the government today hiked import duty on sugar to 40% and scrapped the excise duty on ethanol made from molasses.
While India imports very small quantity of sugar, the scrapping of excise duty will give the millers Rs 5 per litre extra on ethanol they produce from sugarcane. The customs duty has been hiked from 25-40%.
The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official statement said. This would prevent any imports in case the international prices of sugar were to depress further, it added.
The Cabinet also decided to remove "excise duty on ethanol supplied for blending". Presently 12.36% central excise duty is levied.
Ethanol produced from molasses generated in the next sugar season (starting October 2015) and supplied for ethanol blending would be exempted from excise duty. Price benefit would be passed on the to the sugar mills/distilleries.
These measures would significantly improve the adverse price sentiments in respect of sugar and also boost liquidity of millers, facilitating the clearing up of cane arrears, the government said.
"Both farmers and state governments had given some suggestions to ensure timely payment of cane arrears. The Cabinet has approved some of them to provide relief to cane growers," Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told PTI.
"The government is sensitive towards farmers and understands their problems," he added.
The minister said that no decision was taken on proposal to create buffer stock of sugar, but the issue is under consideration of the government.
Yesterday, Paswan had said that cane arrears stood at Rs 21,000 crore. Of this, about Rs 10,000 crore is in UP alone.
Industry body ISMA said the decision to hike import duty and remove excise duty on ethanol would help the millers only in the long run. It demanded that the Centre should buy 10 per cent of sugar produced this year to help clear cane arrears.
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The report by Parliament's PAC was tabled in Parliament a day after Reliance Power pulled out Tilaiya power project in Jharkhand, citing inordinate delay in land acquisition.
New Delhi: Calling for a probe into award of three ultra mega power projects to Reliance Power, a Parliamentary panel on Wednesday said the power ministry selected an "ineligible bidder" for Tilaiya, Sasan and Krishnapatnam projects.
The report by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was tabled in Parliament a day after Reliance Power pulled out Tilaiya power project in Jharkhand, citing inordinate delay in land acquisition.
The damning report by the PAC headed by Congress leader K.V. Thomas, expressed serious concern over the manner in which ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) were awarded.
The PAC said Reliance Power "which did not fulfill the minimum technical qualifying criteria stipulated... was selected as the successful bidder" for these projects with 3,960 MW capacity each. It wanted a probe into how an "ineligible" company walked away with UMPPs. When contacted, a Reliance Power spokesperson said: "The matter is subjudice and pending in Supreme Court."
UMPP is a coal-based power project with 4,000 MW generation capacity. Also, surplus coal from Chitrangi mine, which was to supply feedstock for the Sasan project so that it generates power at bid cost of Rs1.19 a unit, was allowed to be diverted to the firm's other power project whose tarif was already fixed based on coal linkage from costlier sources.
The panel recommended "the government to de-allocate the surplus coal/coal block from Sasan project and utilise the same for sovereign national interest in consonance with the avowed objectives of passing on the benefit of cheaper coal to the consumers."
It said the minimum technical qualifying criteria in the tender for four ultra mega power projects stipulated that bidder should have experience of developing projects in the last 10 years with aggregate capital costs of not not less than Rs3,000 crore.
"The committee note that a major part of the experiences claimed by RPL (Reliance Power) was based on additions to the fixed assets instead of the prescribed capital expenditure pertaining to projects commissioned during the last 10 years," it said.
The PAC said the total experience of Rs4,416.60 crore, Rs3,430.21 crore and Rs3,505.41 crore claimed by RPL while bidding for Sasan and Mundra, Krishnapatnam and Tilaiya respectively, the actual experience to the tune of Rs 3,123.88 crore (Sasan and Mundra), Rs2137.49 crore (Krishnapatnam) and Rs2,254.61 crore (Tilaiya) may not conform to the stipulated qualifying requirement.
While Tata Power won Mundra project, RPL won the remaining three.
To power ministry's contention that RPL submitted an experience certificate signed by a director and auditor, the PAC said "auditor's certificate did not specifically indicate whether the costs pertained to the projects commissioned during the last 10 years."
Reliance Group companies have sued HT Media Ltd, Mint's publisher, and nine others in the Bombay high court over a 2 October 2014 front-page story that they have disputed. HT Media is contesting the case.
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The government is moving faster to boost its urban development mission as it plans to splash a whopping Rs 98,000 crore. Today, the cabinet has approved the creation of 100 smart cities with an outlay of Rs 48,000 crore. The projects will be completed by 2022 under the public-private-partnership model.
Not just that, the cabinet also cleared the Atal Mission For Rejuvenation of Urban Transformation or "AMRUT." This will replace the UPA's Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. The outlay for this programme which will cover 500 cities will be Rs 50,000 crore.
The Centre hopes these moves will provide much needed thrust to its urban development mission. The smart cities project was announced in July 2014 in the Union Budget. Countries such as Singapore, Japan, France and the United States have shown interest in partnering with India on this project.
Pratap Padode, founder & director, Smart Cities Council of India shares his views on the same.
Below is the edited transcript of the interview to CNBC-TV18.
Q: What do you make of both these missions – the Atal Rejuvenation Mission as well as the smart city project? The total allocation – central assistance I am talking about amounts to about Rs 98000 crore over a 5-year period but lets talk specifically about smart cities, 100 smart cities which the government will provide central assistance of Rs 100 crore every year over the next 5 years, too little?
A: I think rather than complain about the fact that it is too little we should say that finally they whole pet project has been flagged off. So, that is a great achievement. Considering the actual requirement which going forward will be required, this is too little. In fact in our estimate nearly 700 million square feet of residential and 900 million square feet of commercial space requires to be built and along which around 8 urban infrastructure core sector needs are there which totally require over a 20 year period around Rs 60 lakh crore. which means Rs 3 lakh crore a year. So, if you do the math we are woefully short but it is a good beginning.
Q: Let me ask you about this business of setting up special purpose vehicles to be created for each city and state governments to ensure this steady stream of resources for SPVs. How feasible is that likely to be and do you believe that private sector participation will be enthusiastic?
A: In the short run already the private sector is showing signs of taking forward the smart city concept which has been seeded by the Prime Minister by actually developing their own 1000 acre and 500 acre kind of townships and smart city concepts. I think those are already in motion. So, what we are going t o see in the short run which is probably in the next 3-5 years a whole lot of such projects coming up parallel which will actually give an indication that there is an opportunity for doing a public private partnership (PPP) provided the government can move forward in actually allocating land.
Q: Why do you feel confident about that? Land of course is a separate issue, we have got the private sector currently dealing with broken balance sheets. We are seeing the private sector withdraw from public private partnerships whether it is the road sector or any of the other infrastructure sectors, why do you feel confident that we will perhaps see the private sector participate as far as these two missions are concerned?
A: Real estate sector development is banking upon any infrastructure project that the government puts up. The moment you have these 100 cities and you satisfy one key infrastructure norm whether it be a bridge or whether it be a water front, the real estate development is going to pan out. For instance the DMIC, DMIC is a good example. You have a DFCC the whole freight corridor coming up and along side a whole lot of cities are going to come up which the government has planned. But no sooner will you see this rail track come up there will be private developments taking shape because they can take decisions much quicker and they don't need to depend upon land acquisition from the government's side.
Q: Let us now talk about the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and urban transformation which involves 500 cities, this in a sense replaces the UPAs JnNURM scheme with an allocation of about Rs 50000 crore. How significant a move is this going to be and what do you see as being the key challenges that this mission is likely to face?
A: This quite a doable thing in the sense that we are talking about retrofitting the brownfeild cities. Retrofitting a brownfeild city is much more comprehensible and doable in the current norms. Of course there are challenges, there will be just like how Delhi Metro faced in terms of laying out the Delhi Metro line in a live city or the Mumbai Airport when it actually got constructed. However we have seen that there has been a fair amount of success in actually achieving mega projects in busy cities like this. So, I anticipate that in tier II cities and so on that the government will actually come up with we are going to see that this kind of a mission will take place much sooner. Of course there have to be yardsticks which the government will come out and every city has to satisfy certain criteria before which they can be given funds and then obviously the tranches of funds will depend upon their own timely completion and quality checks etc. So, it is going to be a challenge but I see that happening much easier.
Q: In terms of clarity now specifically from an SPV structuring point of view, what is it that you would like to see because the fine print of course hasn't been put out just yet?
A: Two issues prior to that which needs to be addressed, one is, is there an empowerment of mayors to handle these cities because you have Budget, you allot certain Budgets to them but we need a city CEO who is actually accountable and responsible for delivering these projects on the ground. Chief Minister of a state has got far too many compulsions across beyond the city where his time is divided and he cannot narrow this down. So we need one structuring to make us city specific CEO accountable to this.
Second part is organising the balance sheets of these states because finally if they are going to raise funds for cities they need to be able to – somebody who is actually lending money to them should be able to hold somebody accountable. What if things don't work out whom do you hold accountable. So, these two challenges need to be met before which the SPVs would – because the SPVs are going to get otherwise stoned walled by these two real challenges which will come up.
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Three members of the technical advisory committee on monetary policy suggested status quo in the policy repo rate while four of them recommended lowering of rates. The members also suggested that the rupee should be allowed to depreciate to boost trade balance and spur demand.
The repo rate - at which bank borrow funds from the central bank - at 7.5% is near neutral, assuming neutral real rate of 2% and likely inflation of about 5.5% and this leaves little room for easing. The members in favour of no-cut believed that there would be little space for a rate cut unless inflation declines further amid growth picking up.
Governor Rajan went with the minority group's view that until the impact of repo rate since January is transmitted into lending rates, no further cut is desirable. Only about eight of India's 47 banks have listened to Rajan's call to lower base rates but none has matched RBI's two 25 basis points rate cut since January.
The majority view was that a decrease in interest rates would stimulate the interest-sensitive sectors of the economy and enable depreciation of the exchange rate, thereby helping the globally connected sectors. The third cut in the interest rate may wait at least till August after the monsoon impact is known. They wanted that the centrality of inflation in a flexible inflation targeting framework be recognised in the Reserve Bank's forward guidance.
RBI expected consumer-price gains will moderate to 4% by August before climbing to 5.8% by March 2016. Inflation has averaged 5.3% this year. Members said that the rupee should be allowed to depreciate as the present level of exchange rate is not beneficial for trade. A modest real depreciation of the rupee would boost the external trade balance as well as push aggregate demand. Since the rupee has appreciated significantly against the euro, India's share of exports in the Euro area may have fallen relative to South Asian countries where currencies have remained fairly stable.
The rupee appreciated by about 11% in real terms against a six-currency basket over the year to March, making Indian exports less competitive.
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Slaps ₹1.50-cr penalty on each; warns 8 other banks
Mumbai, April 29:
Bank of Maharashtra, Dena Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce have been imposed with a monetary penalty of Rs 15 crore each by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for violation of Know Your Customer (KYC)/ Anti Money Laundering (AML) norms.
"Failure on the part of these banks to take timely remedial measures had aggravated the seriousness of the contraventions and its impact," RBI said in a release.
The RBI also cautioned eight other banks -- Central Bank of India, Bank of India, Punjab and Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, UCO Bank, Union Bank of India and Vijaya Bank – "to put in place appropriate measures and review them from time to time to ensure strict compliance of KYC requirements in future.
"The penalties have been imposed in exercise of powers vested in the Reserve Bank…taking into account the violations of the instructions/directions/guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank from time to time. This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank and its customers," the central bank said.
RBI said it received a complaint from a private organisation, on the basis of which a scrutiny of fixed accounts opened in its name in Mumbai based branches of certain public sector banks was undertaken in July 2014.
"With more complaints and involvement of other banks coming to light, a wider thematic review was conducted. In all, 12 branches of 11 Public Sector Banks were covered.
"The scrutiny/thematic review looked into the modus operandi of the alleged frauds involving accounts of certain organisations in these banks, deficiencies/irregularities while opening Fixed Deposits (FD) and extending Overdraft (OD) facility there against them. Besides, the effectiveness of systems and processes in place pertaining to implementation of KYC norms/AML standards in respect of these accounts was also looked into," the RBI added.
The findings revealed violation of some regulatory guidelines as also other disquieting actions on the part of the banks such as non-adherence to certain KYC norms, monitoring of transactions in customer accounts, RBI's instructions regarding funds received through Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), opening of FD accounts and granting overdrafts without due diligence or process, weaknesses in the internal control systems, management oversight, use of internal accounts for parking customer funds and involvement of middlemen/intermediaries in opening of accounts as also subsequent operations in those accounts.
(This article was published on April 29, 2015)
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This pushed up net interest income by 30 per cent. "Our net profit increased 14.95 per cent to Rs 162.28 crore for the March quarter as against Rs 141.17 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year," Dewan Housing said in a statement.
Gross NPA stood at 0.84 per cent while net NPA was zero, the company said.
Loan disbursements and sanctions rose to Rs 6,291.35 crore and Rs 9,386.85 crore, from the earlier Rs 5,743 crore and Rs 7,243 crore respectively, the lender said.
Total income rose 11.67 per cent to Rs 1,582.48 crore during the quarter from Rs 1,417.13 crore a year ago. The net interest margin of the lender stood at 2.89 per cent for the quarter as well as for the full fiscal, its chairman and managing director Kapil Wadhawan said.
Advances grew 10 per cent while sanctions rose 29.5 per cent, taking the total assets under its management to over Rs 57,000 crore, up 27 per cent, he said.
When asked about growth expectations, Wadhawan told PTI that it could be above 20 per cent this fiscal, adding that there is a lot of optimism in the market on the back of reduction in lending rates.
DHFL had reduced its lending rate by 10 basis points to 9.90 per cent earlier in the month to match its larger rivals like HDFC, SBI and ICICI Bank.
Over 80 per cent of loans are retail, he added. When asked about branch expansion, he said there are no major plans as the company is sufficiently covered after adding 105 branches in the reporting year, taking its total outlets to 340.
Wadhawan said there is no immediate fund-raising plans too, as it is adequately capitalised. The company had raised USD 175 million through the special ECB window last in FY14.
For the full fiscal, its net income rose 17.45 per cent to Rs 621.29 crore while loan book outstanding grew 26.18 per cent to Rs 51,039.65 crore. Total income grew 20.41 per cent to Rs 5,981.64 crore.
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