Petrol to be Cheaper by Rs.2.46 a Litre

New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) India's three oil marketing companies (OMCs) have decided to reduce petrol prices by a minimum of Rs.2.46 a litre, depending on states' sales taxes, from midnight, it was announced here Thursday.

"The downward revision shall vary from Rs.2.46 per litre to Rs.3.22 per litre including state levies, depending upon the state taxes," Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) said in the statement.

In Delhi, the price decrease will be Rs.2.46 per litre.

The decrease in other states would vary depending upon the respective rates of state VAT or sales tax.

In Delhi, the revised price for a litre of petrol would be Rs.67.78, in Mumbai it would be Rs.73.35 while in 

Chennai it would be Rs.72.27.

The revised price in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore will be Rs.72.74, Rs.74.89 and Rs.76.39 a litre.

On June 2, the three OMCs cut petrol prices by Rs.1.68 a litre.

The three OMCs - IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. - raised petrol rates by Rs.6.28 a litre, excluding state taxes, the steepest hike in recent memory, to offset the growing losses caused by subsidised rates, rise in the international oil price and a plunging rupee. 

India imports nearly 80 percent of its crude requirements around $160-170 billion annually. 

The high cost of imported fuel is partly blamed for the ballooning Indian current account deficit -- the gap between exports and goods and services imports -- to its widest level in eight years.

IOC said that it suffered a loss of Rs.1,053 crore by selling petrol at cheap rates during the first two months of 2012-13 fiscal, due to its inability to revise prices in line with rising crude prices and eroding value of rupee against the dollar.

"During current fiscal, the corporation (IOC) has already accumulated losses of Rs.1,053 crore (while the three OMCs have lost Rs.2,323 crore) on MS (motor spirit or petrol) sales during the first two months due to inability of OMCs to revise MS prices," IOC added.

IOC estimated that under-recovery on sale of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas, the three items whose pricing remains with government, during 2012-13 will be around Rs.83,000 crore for the company and Rs.151,000 crore for the three OMCs together.

"As compared with the last price change (June 11) current under-recovery on diesel has gone up from Rs.6.13 per litre to Rs.10.20 per litre, for kerosene from Rs.24.16 per litre to Rs.30.53 per litre and for cooking gas from Rs.331.13 per cylinder to Rs.396.00 per cylinder as on June 16," the statement said.

Proposed prices for a litre of petrol in top cities:

New Delhi: Current Price - Rs.70.24, Revised Price - Rs.67.78; Difference - Rs.2.46

Mumbai: Current Price - Rs.76.45, Proposed Price - Rs.73.35; Difference - Rs.3.10

Kolkata: Current Price - Rs.75.81, Proposed Price - Rs.72.74; Difference - Rs.3.07

Chennai: Current Price - Rs.75.40, Proposed Price - Rs.72.27; Difference - Rs.3.13
 

Hyderabad: Current Price - Rs.78.11, Proposed Price - Rs.74.89; Difference - Rs.3.22

Bangalore: Current Price - Rs.79.61, Proposed Price - Rs.76.39; Difference - Rs.3.22

From : Yahoo News

Mukesh Ambani-owned Infotel Broadband to set up over 1,00,000 towers for 4G operations

MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani-owned Infotel Broadband Services plans to set up over 1,00,000 towers for its 4G operations in the next three years, moving away from its 'asset-light' model and possibly disappointing telecom tower companies, including Anil Ambani's Reliance Infratel, which were hoping the RIL group company would use their passive infrastructure for its services.

Infotel Broadband had invited bids earlier this year from tower operators for leasing around 26,000 towers across India for the first phase of its wireless broadband foray. But those plans are on hold, and according to three people familiar with the development, the company has sought quotes and samples from equipment vendors for carbon fibre telecom towers.

The estimated outlay for the company's launch, which is expected later this year or early next year, has been nearly doubled to $8-9 billion, from the originally stated $4 billion in 2010, said one of the three persons.

A Reliance Industries official, who asked not to be named, said the company may partly use its own towers while it may rent the rest from existing tower companies. But if Infotel Broadband does meet its target of building 1,00,000 towers, there might not be any need for it to rent further capacity. Indus Towers, the country's largest tower company, owns around 1,10,000 telecom towers.

Infotel Broadband, 95%-owned by RIL, has all along been expected to lease towers from Reliance Infratel for its 4G rollout. The lease was to mark the first major collaboration between companies owned by the Ambani siblings after they carved out the Reliance empire between themselves in 2005. It was also supposed to boost the valuations of both Reliance Infratel and Reliance Communications, the company that owns a 95% stake in the tower unit.

Reliance Communications has been looking for an equity partner for the tower arm for some years now. Reliance Communication's net debt at the end of third quarter of 2011-12 stood at Rs 36,700 crore. Emails sent to both RIL and Reliance Communications went unanswered.

In May 2010, the Ambani brothers terminated a non-compete agreement that had been in place for five years, paving the way for RIL's re-entry into telecom. Subsequently, Reliance Industries bought 95% stake in Infotel Broadband for Rs 4,800 crore, in addition to paying Rs 12,848 crore for 20 MHz of spectrum in all 22 service areas in India - the only company to do so.

Carbon fibre towers are 25-40% more expensive than traditional steel ones but are ecologically friendly as well as easier to camouflage and relocate. They are also believed to have lower maintenance and base equipment requirements. At present, tenancy levels in existing towers are low and with Uninor, Loop, S-Tel and others shutting operations because of the Supreme Court order, the current overcapacity in the tower market will get further exacerbated. While this has led some to question the wisdom of creating more capacity, a telecom analyst said there could be some justification for RIL's strategy.

"This strategy could make sense if the towers were set up in semi-urban or rural areas for faster rollout in remote areas. If there is little overlap with existing tower companies, this would make sense," said an analyst, who did not wish to be quoted.

Fourth-generation, or 4G, networks will offer Internet and data services at much faster speeds as compared to existing 3G services. Their initial demand will be more in metros and big cities, which are adequately covered by existing tower companies.

At the time of Infotel's acquisition, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani had said the company would follow an 'asset-light' telecom deployment strategy, meaning it would not set up its own towers or rollout optic fibre cables to carry calls. But the thinking has changed a little along the way, said a source.

By : The Economic Times

Investors Look to TCS for Cues after Reliance Industries, Infosys

MUMBAI: Stock investors tired of the gloom surrounding the proposal to tax foreign institutions are looking foward to fourth quarter earnings from companies for some respite in the week ahead.

Though Reliance Industries (RIL), which announced its January-March earnings after trading hours on Friday, disappointed markets, investors are hoping that results of other top companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, ICICI Bank and Wipro among others would trigger rallies in their specific stocks or sectors.

"RIL's core business margins have been affected. Moreover, there is a large amount of other income, mostly as interest from the high-cash holdings," said Arun Kejriwal, founder of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services.

"The market hasn't factored in the full results yet, and ideally the stock should correct next week as some foreign investors exit positions. Then again, the company could also buy back shares," he said, referring to RIL's one-year buyback programme announced in January, which means the company's share purchases could support the stock price. RIL fell 1.4% to 731 on Friday

Brokers said the proposal to levy short-term tax on foreign investors trading from tax havens is the biggest source of concern as the absence of inflows along with a current account deficit could weigh on the rupee further. A weaker rupee will widen the country's fiscal deficit.

"Markets are giving a lot of weightage to the GAAR issue," said DK Agrawal, CMD at SMC Securities, "The rate cut was a ray of hope, but concerns over GAAR soon took over because money from FIIs is just not coming in. If the finance minister can make some clarifying statements, then it could help relieve fears," he said.

Investors will keenly watch TCS results to see if the Infosys results were an industry-wide phenomenon. The Infosys stock was beaten down on the bourses after it provided a dim guidance for the year ahead and announced below-expected results.

Technical analysts said Nifty is expected to trade between 5,240 and 5,400 points. "A closing below 5,240 could take the index to its 200-day moving average of 5,150 points, but we don't see the possibility of that happening," said Dharmesh Shah, technical analyst at ICICIDirect.com.

By : [The Economic Times]