Business & Economy

Centre to dilute stake in
Maruti Udyog, BHEL 

What is India News Service, Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 2100 hrs IST

The government has decided to dilute a portion of its holding in Maruti Udyog and power plant equipment maker Bhel through public offers by the end of this fiscal. The stake sale, initiated by the finance ministry, will help the government raise around Rs 2,000 crore and reduce the fiscal deficit. 

The department of heavy industries, senior government officials said, has agreed to the stake dilution, subject to the condition that the equity would be offloaded only in the Indian capital market. The government plans to sell 5% holding in Bhel and around 8-10% in Maruti. 

"We want to do it this fiscal, otherwise there could be a problem for the fiscal deficit," the government official said. The proceeds from this dilution is expected to bring down fiscal deficit to 4.4% of GDP from 4.8% last year. The government, at present, owns 67.7% in Bhel and 18.48% in Maruti. "With Maruti, we wanted to offer the stake to the Indian public and investors rather than selling it in the international markets or to Suzuki. We will completely exit Maruti later through another round of stake sale," the official said.

ONGC faces action if it picks Yukos stake: Russia\92s embattled Yukos Oil Company has threatened to sue Indian oil and gas major ONGC if it goes ahead with plans to pick up stake in its core asset Yuganskneftegaz, effectively nationalised by the Russian Government through auction.

Infosys Tech Q3 net surges 51%: The IT company has added 38 new clients during the quarter. 

Sensex continues southwards: The stock markets continued moving downwards with the Bombay Stock Exchange\92s sensitive index shedding 86 points. The Sensex closed at 6,222, down 86 points. The NSE Nifty too closed lower at 1,952 down 30 points.

Exports cross $ 53 b: India\92s exports are estimated to have crossed $ 53 billion during the first nine months of the current financial year 2004-05 and the export growth rate in April-December is estimated to be over 23 per cent.

Budget may cut import duty, focus on jobs: The corporate sector has made a fresh plea for labour reforms.

Minister tells paper industry to get eco-friendly: The Ministry of Environment and Forests has asked the \93environmental nightmare sector\94 of the Indian pulp and paper industry to become more eco-friendly.

Reliance pays Rs 84.7 cr to BSNL:  As directed by the Supreme Court, Reliance Infocomm has paid Rs 84.7 crore to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited towards Access Deficit Charge that it allegedly evaded by routing incoming international calls as local ones.

Pharma scrips dip on new excise norms: Reports that a new excise duty on drugs has been imposed on the pharmaceutical industry has taken its toll on pharma scrips in a bearish stock market on Tuesday.

FM interacts with agriculturists, industrialists in pre-Budget talks: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday kicked off his pre-budget interaction with various interest groups starting off with politically correct move of meeting with agriculture experts. 

FIIs may get stakes in news channels: The Centre may allow FDI in radio companies.

Farmers want job guarantee scheme expanded: Agriculture experts today suggested to the Government to replace the system of minimum support price for specified crops by a system of remunerative prices and a participatory price insurance scheme.

Reliance buy backs more shares from market: Reliance Industries on Tuesday bought over three lakh shares for Rs 16.5 crore on the second day
of its buyback programme but failed to prevent the continuous fall in the company share prices. 

After oil, Cairn now finds gas in Rajasthan: Cairn Energy said it has discovered gas in its Rajasthan block, where India\92s largest oil find in
more than two decades was made last year

Business papers 


Business Standard
Economic Times
Business Line
Financial Express