• SEBI eases norms for rights issues
• Demat trade stamp duty waiver on anvil
• Tax sops for supercritical tech
• Bharti, MTN extend talks to September 30
• New norms to give states leeway on land acquisition for special zones
• In a move that will streamline the rights issue process, the SEBI has rationalised the disclosure requirements for rights issues. It has also made ASBA (application supported by blocked amount) applicable for all rights issues. ASBA is a mode of application wherein investor’s funds leave his bank account only on allocation of shares in public issues. The process is already functional for public issues. ASBA for rights issues will co-exist with the current process of use of cheque/demand draft as amode of payment. SEBI has reduced the time period for finalisation of the basis of allotments in rights issues to 15 days from 42 days. The guidelines will be applicable for all rights issues where offer documents have been filed on or after the circular. (BS)
• Govt and SEBI are leant to have asked states to either waive off or rationalise the stamp duty on financial transactions executed electronically, a move that could bring down the transaction costs on the various electronic exchanges in India. Besides bringing about rationalisation and uniformity in stamp duty rates, the Centre also wants states to streamline the mechanism of collecting the levy. (ET)
• According to sources, govt has proposed to extend the excise waiver and income-tax holiday benefit to power projects based on supercritical technology, including large-sized energy-efficient power equipment. The proposal is part of the new mega power policy being worked out. The existing policy has no provision for giving incentives to the new-generation supercritical power projects. The new policy would also allow projects that have completed financial closure but have not tied up requisite long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) to apply for mega power status and avail incentives. (ET)
• Bharti Airtel and South African telecom major MTN have extended their exclusive talks for a complex $23-billion cash-cum-stock deal by a further one month to September 30. This is the second time that the negotiations have been extended, raising concern among investors over the terms of an agreement that would create the world’s third-largest telecom firm by subscriber base with revenues of over $20 billion. (FE)
• Commerce ministry has released a series of guidelines, which seek to partially relax land acquisition norms for SEZs by state govts. In addition, the norms for building SEZs, which are bifurcated by roads or railway lines, have also been released by the ministry. The new set of guidelines, released on August 18, will allow states to acquire land for SEZs if land owners have withdrawn or not filed objections towards the move. At the same time, the landowners will also have to give their consent to state governments. The new guidelines also reaffirm that if owners have any objections to the acquisition of land by state governments for SEZs, the inter-ministerial board of approval (BoA) on SEZs will not consider such cases.
