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BPCL Manmad unit sealed for non-payment of `export fee`

Mumbai, May 23: A unit of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd at Manmad in north Maharashtra has been sealed Friday morning by the local authorities for non-payment of `export fee'.

The company today moved the Bombay High Court, praying for an immediate relief, as this unit provides petrol, diesel, kerosene and other petroleum products to the national capital.

The Manmad Municipal Corporation sealed the unit for non-payment of Rs 23 crore as export fee.

The court's vacation bench, however, refused to pass any order without hearing the Manmad Municipal Corporation.

Division bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and Ashotosh Kumbhkoni asked BPCL to serve notice to the corporation, adjourning the hearing till tomorrow.

BPCL has storage tanks at Panewadi village, on Manmad's outskirts. The company provides petroleum products from this facility to Delhi, Kota and Haryana apart from north and central parts of Maharashtra.

Petrol, diesel prices hiked marginally

New Delhi, May 23: Petrol and diesel prices have been raised marginally by 3-5 paise per litre after the government decided to hike the commission paid to dealers for the sale of fuel.

Dealers` commission effective midnight will be Rs 28 per kilolitre for petrol and Rs 31 per kilolitre for diesel, an Indian Oil Corporation official said.

The effect of the increase in the commission will be rise in prices of petrol and diesel, effective midnight.

Petroleum Min seeks Rs 10/ litre hike in Petrol, Rs 5 in diesel

"It (price rise) is inevitable," Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan said referring to Rs 2,00,000 crore under- realisation expected by public sector oil companies this year on sale on petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene because of the surge in global crude prices.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are facing a huge liquidity crunch because of the government bar on raising prices and may soon run out of funds to import crude oil.

"The situation is alarming and we want to stem the rot at the beginning," he said, adding that the minister was pushing for a combination of auto-fuel price hike and a cut in customs and excise duties.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora apprised the Prime Minister of the situation arising from crude touching 135 dollars per barrel and said, "a decision needs to be taken immediately."

"The Prime Minister is concerned about the financial health of the PSUs and he has asked his Principal Secretary to meet secretaries of finance and petroleum along with the heads of the three oil companies to reconcile differences on the issue," he said.

Asked if a decision was likely today or tomorrow, Deora said it will take sometime, "May be 3-4 days."

Srinivasan said the Ministry was seeking lowering of customs duty on crude from 5 per cent to zero and import duty on petrol and diesel from 7.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. Besides, the Ministry was also seeking cut on excise duty on the two products.

SC sets aside SEBI`s order against minors

New Delhi, May 23: The Supreme Court has held that minors cannot be prosecuted or barred from operating in the securities market for unfair market trade practices even if irregularities have been committed in their names.

SEBI had barred Ritesh Polyester and its promoters -- Ritesh Exports, Surendra Kumar Agarwal and his wife Roop Rekha Agarwal and their minor sons Ritesh and Deepak -- from operating in the capital market for a period of 10 years for violating the SEBI Act and SEBI (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices) Regulations, 1995.

A bench headed by Justice S B Sinha while allowing Ritesh and Deepak`s appeal said that the minors, as was apparent from their birth certificates, could not have committed fraud and thus the impugned directions would not be binding on them as minors cannot enter into a contract.

"If they were minors, they being not party to the fraud, could not have been subjected to penalty under the SEBI Act. The person who committed the fraud in their names, viz., Surender himself, should have been proceeded against not only for commission of act of fraud on his own behalf but also on behalf of the minors."

However, it allowed the market regulator to go ahead with the prosecution against other promoters including Surender and Rooprekha.

"We, however, uphold other directions issued by the Board including the action taken in respect of the offences purported to have been committed. We also grant liberty to the authorities to proceed against the offenders not only for other or further charges to which they made themselves liable under the SEBI Act but also under the Companies Act, 1956 and other penal statutes, if attracted." the court said.

While stating that the FUTP Regulations are prospective in nature, the court said that SEBI cannot proceed against the promoters under the FUTP Regulations as they had committed the irregularities prior to coming into force of these regulations on October 25, 1995.

SEBI simplifies offer document procedure for mutual funds

Market regulator SEBI on Friday simplified the format of offer documents of mutual funds to make them easily understandable for investors.

According to a SEBI circular, the offer documents would be split into three heads -- Statement of Additional Information (SAI), Scheme Information Document (SID) and Key Information Memorandum (KIM).

The new circular would be applicable for the offer document filed on or after June 1.

Women good in biz, best person should be US Prez: Nooyi

London, May 22: US-based Pepsico's CEO Indra Nooyi's efforts to promote equality of women in business goes way beyond designing a maternity deal, but when it comes to choosing the American President she says only the best will do regardless of gender or race.

India-born Nooyi, who broke many barriers to become the US food and beverages giant's first woman Chief Executive, said that in her view having the best President was more significant than having the first woman President or African-American President.

In an interview to a business magazine, she said the biggest challenge she faced in making the corporate climate inclusive for women was figuring out how to accommodate women or people with special needs in the workforce without burdening those who have to compensate.

"We know the problem, but we're still trying to find the solution," she said when asked by interviewer Simon Hobbs if the culture she has created was more important overall, then, say a maternity deal.

Nooyi, who after much struggle overcame the personal guilt of not giving enough time to her family, said Pepsico has created a very specific diversity and inclusion programme.

"We set goals and time frames and held people accountable for getting to them. The first step was getting people in, but that's only half the problem because if they leave it's more painful for the organisation.

"Step two is inclusion. For example, if a woman says something, don't immediately interpret it as if a man said it, or expect a woman to react to a comment in the same way as a man. You will have a different dynamic with women, African- Americans or Latinos because each group is a product of their socio-economic culture," she said.

My husband is innocent: Arushi’s mother

Noida, May 24: Dr Nupur Talwar finally broke her silence on her daughter Arushi’s murder on Saturday, claiming that her husband Rajesh has been falsely implicated by the police in the case.

Speaking to a private television news channel, Nupur said it was impossible her husband (Rajesh) could have killed her daughter, adding that the killer was still out in the open.

“Will any mother cover up for a husband who killed his daughter?” she replied, when asked to comment on her role in the entire incident.

Expressing faith in God and law, Nupur said she would fight for her husband till the end.

She described domestic help Hemraj as elderly and caring to Arushi, saying they had dinner like any other normal family and went to sleep on the day the two were murdered.

Describing the whole incident as the worst punishment she could have got from God, Nupur said her life has been spoiled.

When asked to comment on their relationship with Durranis, Nupur said they were like a family.

On Friday, the Noida police had arrested Dr Rajesh Talwar for allegedly murdering his daughter Arushi and domestic help Hemraj, in their residence last week.

Meerut Zone Inspector General Gurdarshan Singh told a press conference that Talwar possibly killed both because they knew about his extra-marital affair and the two victims also shared a close relationship.

The police alleged that Rajesh had an illicit relationship with Dr Anita Durrani, who shared space with the Talwars in their clinic.

BHEL`s Q4 Net Profit declines by 3.43%

Mumbai, May 24: State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd on Friday announced a standalone Net Profit of Rs 1,110.87 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, a 3.43 per cent decline over the corresponding period a year ago.

The company had a standalone Net Profit of Rs 1,150.37 crore in the fourth quarter last financial year, BHEL said in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The standalone total income increased to Rs 7,626.20 crore in the latest quarter from Rs 7205.70 crore in the same period last year.

The standalone Net Profit of the public sector firm rose to Rs 2,859.34 crore for the year ended March 31, from Rs 2,414.70 crore in the previous year.

The standalone total income grew to Rs 20,761.69 crore for the year ended March 31, from Rs 17,999 crore in the last year ended March 31, 2007.

The Board of Directors of the company recommended a final dividend of Rs 6.25 per share (62.5 per cent) in addition to the interim dividend of Rs 9 per equity (90 per cent) already paid.

The shares of the public sector enterprise closed at Rs 1,747.20 at the BSE, down 0.05 per cent from the previous close.

SBI employees call for nationwide strike

Mumbai, May 24: The country's largest public sector lender the State Bank of India's employees on Friday said they would hold a one-day nationwide strike on June 6 to protest against the bank's management policies.

The strike would be observed to protest against SBI management's policies on various issues including that of the pension scheme and Indian Banks Association's reluctance to take forward the employees' demands, a union official said.

"We will hold a one-day nationwide token strike on June 6. The IBA, despite having signed an agreement on various issues three months back, has not taken any significant steps to find solutions to the employees' problems," All India State Bank Officers Federation's general secretary G D Nadaf told here.

Apart from the pension scheme, other demands include recruitment of officers, regulated working hours for officers and termination of staff outsourcing, Nadaf said.

MTN shares move down

New Delhi, May 24: After days of surge since Bharti Airtel evinced interest in acquiring the company, shares of South Africa`s MTN moved downward on Friday in Johanesberg -- probably sensing the Indian telecom giant`s pullout from the talks.

MTN and Bharti had first disclosed being engaged in talks for a possible deal earlier this month, ever since the shares of the South African firm had gained by over 20 per cent -- adding close to 10 billion dollars to the company`s market value to near 40 billion dollars.

However, Bharti announced today having pulled out of the talks, blaming MTN of proposing an altogether different deal structure from what was agreed upon between the two earlier.

While wishing all the best to MTN in future endeavours, Bharti said that MTN was now proposing a structure that sought making Indian entity a subsidiary of the South African firm.

Bharti said such a structure was not acceptable to it, as it could have diluted the value for the Sunil Mittal family, its promoter, its foreign partner Singtel as well as minority shareholders of the company.

Shares of Bharti rose by 2.35 per cent yesterday to close at Rs 836.8 at the Bombay Stock Exchange, after mostly falling amidst the talks with MTN.

Bharti stock had fallen by close to 12 per cent from over Rs 900 per share late last month, before reports started surfacing about MTN talks, to Rs 817.60 on Thursday. The analysts had said that the stock was reeling under selling pressure on concerns about any potential financial burden due to a possible takeover of MTN.

Analysts said Bharti shares may gain further and that of MTN might go down again when the markets reopen on Monday, on the back of two firms falling apart on deal negotiations.

MTN shares dropped by 0.5 per cent on Friday to 156.2 South African Rands, pulling the company`s market capitalisation to close to 290 billion Rands (37.9 billion dollars). The share price had risen to a high of 160 Rands amid talks with Bharti, giving it a market capitalisation of close to 40 billion dollars.

Indonesia raises fuel prices nearly 30%

Jakarta, May 24: Indonesia has raised prices at the pump by nearly 30 per cent because of the surging cost of oil and gas on the global market, the government said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned earlier this month that Budget-busting subsidies, which have for years enabled motorists to fill up for roughly USD 1.80 a gallon, would have to be drastically slashed.

Most people realise he had little choice, but that has not stopped thousands of students from taking to the streets in near-daily rallies this week, saying the poor would be hit the hardest.

Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said yesterday that gas prices were being boosted 33 per cent to USD 2.40 a gallon. Diesel oil jumped 27 per cent to USD 2.25 a gallon. And kerosene, used primarily for cooking, rose 25 per cent to USD 1.00.

"The rise in world oil prices and the rise in our fuel subsidies ... Has burdened the state budget," Yusgiantoro told a news conference following a meeting with Yudhoyono. "Therefore, we needed to adjust prices."

Indonesia's 2008 budget was drafted using an average oil price of USD 85 a barrel for the whole year -- a figure later revised to USD 95. When prices topped the USD 100 mark, the cost of protecting consumers threatened to destabilise the already beleaguered economy.

Subsidies put in place during the 32-year dictatorship of Suharto, who was ousted in 1998 amid massive protests, were aimed at protecting the country's most vulnerable.

The move is politically risky, coming ahead of General Elections early next year.