• Kelkar to ready GST report by Dec
• Nelp to make way for open licensing
• RIL takes IL&FS on board for Haryana SEZ
• US court rejects Sterlite’s Asarco bid, backs Grupo
• SEBI bars Austral Coke from raising capital
• RIL to bid for pipeline project in Mexico
• Reliance Infratel plans Rs 5,000-crore IPO
• According to sources, Govt is making one last attempt to set off the unified goods & services tax (GST) system on schedule, on April 1, 2010 and to smoothen the process, it would give the 13th Finance Commission, tasked with dividing tax revenues between the Centre and states, three more months, till December end, to submit its report. The Commission does this job every five years on a Constitutional mandate, but this time it has a tricky task in hand as it is supposed to make allocations between the Centre and each state, assuming the implications of the new tax regime that will rewrite the division of the indirect tax corpus of close to Rs 2,70, 000 crore. The Commission, chaired by Vijay Kelkar, was supposed to submit its report by October 31, 2009. A final decision on extending the deadline will be taken soon. While the Centre and states have agreed on a dual structure for GST, they are yet to decide on many crucial issues, such as the rates, the minimum threshold for the tax to be applicable and the commodities that would be exempt from it. (FE)
• According to sources, India plans to phase out the annual auctioning of oil & gas exploration blocks under the new exploration licensing policy (Nelp) in favour of an open acreage licensing system (OALP), which will allow energy firms to bid for such blocks anytime of the year, a senior oil ministry official said. OALP will enable bidders to bid for blocks on offer anytime of the year unlike Nelp, which is an annual event. Data for these blocks would be made available to the bidders through the National Data Repository (NDR). India’s upstream regulator, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), is in the process of setting up an NDR to collect and preserve valuable data related to India’s sedimentary basins that will be used by energy exploration firms in discovering hydrocarbon assets. (ET)
• Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) is learnt to have picked up a “significant minority stake” in the Reliance Industries-promoted SEZ project in Haryana that has struggled to take off despite having started four years ago. IL&FS would not just be ‘a pure financial investor’ but be a “co-promoter” and play a lead role in the management of the $10-billion project, long billed as India’s biggest and most ambitious SEZ project spanning 25,000 acres. The amount of stake that has changed hands and the value of the transaction could not be ascertained as yet. (ET)
• The bankruptcy court in Corpus Christi, Texas, has rejected Sterlite Industries' bid to acquire Asarco, six months after the Indian company had signed an agreement to acquire the beleaguered US copper miner. The Court recommended the offer of Grupo Mexico—the only rival of Sterlite—over the Indian company's bid. The case has been sent to US District Court Judge Andrew S. Hanen in Texas for a final decision, which is expected in four to six weeks. (ET)
• SEBI has barred Austral Coke and Projects from raising any further capital on finding that the company was involved in a fraud amounting to Rs 1,047 crore. Further, it has ordered an investigation into buying, selling or otherwise dealing in the securities of the company. SEBI swung into action following a communication from the Income Tax Department on August 26, which pointed to serious irregularities in the company’s books of accounts based on searches carried out by it on Austral Coke’s premises on June 23. The letter also said that bogus purchases had been claimed to have been made from 29 non-existent concerns, running into several hundred crores. (FE)
• According to sources, Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalisation, is planning a foray into the global pipeline construction business with a bid for building Rs 3,000 crore worth of oil and gas pipeline in Mexico. The Co. will be scouting for opportunities abroad, as its pipeline division itself has the size of a mid-cap company. Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, had recently announced it would take bids from international firms to build a $600 million, 230 km, natural gas pipeline to increase transmission capacities in the central and western parts of the country. The award will go to the lead bidder within six months. (BS)
• Reliance Infratel, the tower subsidiary of telecom service provider Reliance Communications (RCom), will file a draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) for its proposed Initial Public Offer (IPO) of around Rs 5,000 crore within a week. This would be second largest IPO after the economic downturn, the biggest being the Rs 6,000-crore IPO by staterun National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). Reliance Infratel is looking at raising around $1 billion by offloading a minimum of 10 % stake. The company intends to use the proceeds for its expansion plans, including expansion of its portfolio of telecom towers and footprint. (BS)
