25 August 2011;business-standard.com:Swaraj Baggonkar & Shubhashish: Mumbai: Tata Motors, India’s biggest automobile company, is launching limited-period promotional offers for its small car Nano, including sizeable discounts on the car to the employees of various companies under the Tata Group. Higher price tag and soaring fuel costs have swayed buyers away from the ultra compact car over the months. The automaker recently concluded an offer to the employees of Tata Consultancy Services, India’s top software exporter, allowing them to buy the small car for a discount of Rs 25,000 on the top-end variant. Tata Motors also said the response from the 10-day offer from end-July to early August had been overwhelming from TCS. While a similar promotional offer was launched by the company for its own employees late last year, more such offers are expected to pour into other group companies. According to sources, Tata Motors will extend a similar offer to the employees of Tata Steel in the coming days followed by other group companies. Along with heavy cash discounts, the company has also offered cheaper finance schemes. Other features of the Nano sold to TCS employees included a signature of Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, near the instrument console on interiors of the car. The Nano sold to TCS employees was termed as a ‘TCS edition’ car, sources added. “From time to time, on all our products, we work with sister companies in the group to create exciting offers for colleagues and their families, just like we do for our own colleagues,” a Tata Motors spokesperson said. “As for the Tata Nano specifically, as for any prospective customer, it is equally an aspirational car for colleagues across the group. In the Tata Group, companies offer colleagues in other companies special offers on their products. As for the special offer on Tata Nano for TCS colleagues, the response incidentally has been overwhelming,” he added. Tata Motors is aiming to tap into the potential yet sizeable consumer base for the Nano within all group companies where more than 200,000 people are employed in India. While promotion of its own vehicles amongst the employees of its mother group is not new for Tata Motors, it can potentially bring in added sales for the Nano whose demand has started to dwindle once again. The Nano’s country-wide sales so far this year has posted six per cent growth, outpacing the growth of the entire car segment which has grown by one per cent during the same period. However, monthly sales over the last two months have nearly halved to 8,712 units compared to the corresponding months a year earlier. The entry price tag of the Nano is at Rs 1.53 lakh, while the top-end variant costs Rs 2.11 lakh (both prices ex-showroom, Mumbai). The company is making attempts to revive sales of the small car including expanding dealer base in the interiors of the country. Tata Motors Finance, the financing arm of the company is providing loans at lower rates.
25 August 2011;business-standard.com:Mihir Mishra:New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) hopes to exceed its annual target of 7,300 km road projects by 13 per cent to 9,000 km for the current financial year — almost double of what it had awarded last year. “In the first four months, we have already awarded over 3,100 km of road projects and will easily be able to cross the 9,000 km mark by the end of this fiscal,” said a senior NHAI official, requesting anonymity. The official said NHAI had wanted to set a target of over 9,000 km this year but the Planning Commission had brought it down, saying NHAI would not be able to achieve it. In FY12, NHAI had announced 59 projects covering 7,994 km, with a total cost of Rs 60,000 crore — much less compared to the target of 96 projects covering 12,000 km worth Rs 1,00,000 crore for the last financial year, when Kamal Nath was at the helm. During his tenure, Nath had come up with project plans for two financial years and had set a target of awarding a little over 200 projects worth Rs 2,00,000 crore. However, NHAI could grant only a little over 70 projects and the 20-km target per day remained on paper. The award of road projects had slowed while UPA-I was in office. While the economic slowdown and the ensuing liquidity crunch had affected the performance keeping companies away, T R Baalu’s performance as the road transport minister was also dissatisfactory. In mid-2009 when UPA-II came to power, Kamal Nath was brought in to reform the functioning of the ministry and NHAI. He had set a target to build 20 km a day, increasing it from the earlier three km a day. Industry insiders said it would not be difficult for NHAI to increase its own target. “I will not be surprised if NHAI exceeds the current target. The policy has been changed quite a bit and made dynamic, which will facilitate the bidding process. Also, the demand for road projects is at its peak because of other sectors drying up,” said an executive of a Mumbai-based infrastructure company, on condition of anonymity. NHAI had recently decided to make the bidding process less complex by making a Request for Qualification (RFQ) document valid for a year. With this, road developers would save the six months that goes in preparing the document every time one places a bid.
24 August 2011;business-standard.com:Jyoti Mukul:New Delhi: RILs' D6 gas field has dropped production by 25%. Why has Reliance failed to keep up production of gas from its D6 field? The answer may reveal more about disincentivised pricing than capacity issues. After establishing itself as India’s most valuable company—one with the largest market capitalisation—for four years straight, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was unseated from its perch by government-owned Coal India Ltd last week. Two days later, RIL had the ignominy of seeing another government-owned concern, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), creep its way to within a hair’s -breadth of Reliance’s second place position. For a company that was a stock market star since 2007 by sheer weight of its energy business, RIL’s return to the top slot again is hardly a consolation. Its challengers are, after all, mammoth public sector giants known for their unwieldy scale and inefficient production. All three companies are into the business of energy but are fundamentally different in the way they are run because of divergence in their ownership. Still, they share a few similarities today in that they are all cash rich firms facing stagnating production and pricing controls. The market, however, seems to be treating them somewhat differently. While it has not been favourable to ONGC because of a mounting subsidy burden, it seems to have discounted challenges faced by Coal India. More importantly, it seems to have punished the RIL scrip—essentially viewing it as a company that is running out of investment ideas. The big question is, why has RIL not addressed investor concerns? After all, the company has hardly divulged anything meaningful on plans to ramp up gas production or what it intends to do with the piles of cash it is sitting on. Mostly, however, it has remained silent over the 25 per cent fall in production in the past few months. Could it be, that the price of gas, capped at $4.2 per million British thermal unit for five years by the government is proving to be a disincentive for production? Is it possible that RIL is simply waiting to re-negotiate the price at a more favourable level, and then ramp up production? In its submission to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), RIL says that a rise in gas prices by even $1 for a million British thermal unit boosts the profitability of the project, making the government share reach higher tranches of profit sharing much faster. A close look at the production sharing contract that governs D6 reveals that the company has to pay a percentage of the profits from the block to the government, which varies with the Investment Multiple (IM). The company pays 10 per cent of profits when the IM is less than 1.5; 16 per cent between 1.5 and 2; 28 per cent between 2 and 2.5; and 85 per cent thereafter. According to Niko Resources, RIL’s 10 per cent partner in the D6 block, the profit share with the government was 10 per cent as of March 31, 2011. Many in the petroleum sector suspect that the company does not want to produce more gas from its Dhirubhai 6 block at least till 2014 when it can ask for a higher price. Till then, it could be argued, it is content with smaller production of its finite reserves of gas. The removal of a tax holiday on gas production is the second important reason for the company not feeling incentivised to produce more gas, says industry watchers.
23 August 2011;deccanherald.com:Bangalore: Tata Motors, on Tuesday, launched a new version of its premium hatchback — Tata Vista. The new range will be available at Tata Motors dealerships from September 1, 2011. The Tata Vista comes in 4 trim levels — LS/ GLS (base version), LX/ GLX, VX/ GVX and ZX/ GZX (top-end version) and will be offered in six colors — summer sparkle, porcelain white, arctic silver, spice red, brilliant blue and cavern grey. The car have been priced starting from Rs 3.88 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the Safire petrol range and from Rs 4.79 lakhs for the Quadrajet diesel range (ex-showroom, Delhi). The car has generous chrome package on the exteriors and sporty new alloy wheels. A mirror polished garnishing below the rear windshield adds to the distinctiveness of the exteriors.
Petrol in India costlier than US, Pakistan: RPN Singh
23 August 2011;dailypioneer.com:NEW DELHI: Petrol prices in India are costlier than the US but cheaper than European countries, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas RPN Singh said on Tuesday. Petrol in Delhi is priced at Rs 63.70 a litre, while the same in USA is priced at Rs 42.82 per litre. The price in India is more than any of its neighbours -- Pakistan (Rs 41.81 a litre), Sri Lanka (Rs 50.30 per litre), Bangladesh (Rs 44.80 a litre) and Nepal (Rs 63.24 per litre). But the rate in Delhi is cheaper than France (Rs 94.97 per litre), Germany (Rs 95.99 a litre), the United Kingdom (Rs 96.39 per litre) and Italy (Rs 96.79 a litre), he said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha here.Higher rates for petrol in India are due to higher incidence of taxes. Without taxes, petrol would cost Rs 23.37 per litre in Delhi.The diesel price in Delhi, at Rs 41.29 per litre, is cheaper than in the US and European nations, but costlier than Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Without taxes, diesel would cost Rs 24.90 a litre. The current price of diesel in Delhi is Rs 4.97 a litre below its actual cost in the US, diesel is priced at Rs 45.84 a litre, while in France, it costs Rs 69.87 per litre. In Germany, diesel costs Rs 72.54 a litre, while it is priced at Rs 82.93 a litre in the UK and Rs 74 per litre in Italy. In the neighbourhood, diesel is priced at Rs 46.70 a litre in Pakistan, Rs 45.38 a litre in Nepal, Rs 34.37 a litre in Sri Lanka and Rs 27.32 per litre in Bangladesh. Singh said the PDS kerosene price of Rs 14.83 a litre in Delhi was the lowest in the region, with the cooking fuel priced at Rs 44.06 per litre in Pakistan, Rs 24.67 in Sri Lanka, Rs 27.32 in Bangladesh and Rs 45.38 a litre in Nepal. Similarly, the domestic LPG rate of Rs 399 per 14.2-kg cylinder is lower than the price tag of Rs 757.04 in Pakistan, Rs 863.40 in Sri Lanka, Rs 469.24 in Bangladesh and Rs 819.60 in Nepal. The price of kerosene is subsidised by Rs 23.74 a litre and LPG by Rs 247 per cylinder in India. Singh said oil marketing companies pay a Trade Parity Price (TPP) for the purchase of petrol/diesel and Import Parity Price (IPP) for the purchase of PDS kerosene and domestic LPG.”The IPP/TPP are determined based on prices prevailing in the international market,” he said. “Further, the retail selling prices of sensitive petroleum products for the consumers is calculated by adding the inland freight, marketing margins and duties and taxes to the price paid to refinery.”
23 August 2011;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:Pankaj Doval:NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki on Tuesday suspended two workers at its troubled Manesar plant for instigating indiscipline on the shop floor, taking the total number of suspended workers to six at its second factory. The Manesar plant has been a trouble-spot for the company after a section of workers - under a rebel outfit Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) - had gone on a 13-day strike in June, demanding formation of a separate union. However, their application for the formation of the union had been rejected by the Haryana government, though the rebels said they would continue their efforts for its formation. The current suspension comes close on the heels of suspension of four workers in late July for manhandling supervisors. Those suspended were part of the rebel body. Officials within the company indicated that indiscipline would not be tolerated and Maruti Suzuki management will take stern action against anyone it perceived as a trouble maker. The issue of a second union formation has been a thorny one for Maruti Suzuki management which feels that the company's existing and long-standing union, Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU), is well equipped to take care of the interests of all workers, including those at Manesar. The rebels, however, say that MUKU should confine its activities and scope to the Gurgaon plant and thus there should be a new workers body for taking care of the interests of the Manesar workers. The issue has been a sensitive one for Maruti as the Manesar plant is the hub of its key model, Swift hatchback. Production, however, remained normal on Tuesday and there was no negative labour issue due to the suspension. The agitation in May had resulted in production loss of over 10,000 cars, leading to bulging of waiting lists on its key models. The company management is not in favour of according recognition to a second union on various grounds, including their keenness to have outside representatives into the workers' body.
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