Fuel price hike rollback not in the offing: Revenue secy

Revenue secretary Sunil Mitra today ruled out any rollback of duty hike on petroleum products amid increasing pressure from UPA allies and the opposition. "No, what roll back?" Mitra said when asked whether there would be any rollback of excise and custom duty on petroleum products. As part of the Budget proposals of 2010-11,the government hiked customs duty on petrol and diesel to 7.5 per cent from 2.5 per cent while excise duty was raised by Re one on non-branded (normal) petrol and diesel. Beginning February 27, petrol prices rose by Rs 2.67 a litre and diesel by Rs 2.58 per litre in Delhi. Petrol, in Delhi currently costs Rs 47.43 a litre and diesel Rs 35.47 per litre. While acknowledging that the tax proposals would have an impact on prices, Mitra said initially it will "be marginal. We expect this to be absorbed over a period of time." However, after the Budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that increase in excise duty would result in inflationary impact of 0.41 per cent on the wholesale price index. "I do agree that my tax proposals (excise duty increase from 8 per cent to 10 per cent on non-oil products) will have some inflationary ingredient. It will be about 0.41 per cent. But in course of time it will be absorbed," Mukherjee had said. However, he said the purpose of the duty hike was to raise additional resources and, therefore, he took the "risk of having a little inflationary pressure." He said wholesale price inflation, currently at 8.56 per cent, is primarily because of the rise in prices of wheat, sugar pulses and rice, which can be tackled only by improving supplies.

India needs 400 airports, 3,000 aircraft in 10 yrs: Patel

India needs at least 400 airports and 3,000 aircraft in the next 10 years to keep pace with the growing demand, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here today. He said as the aviation industry has been growing at 18 per cent CAGR, the country needs up to 3,000 aircraft in the next ten years.

Govt earmarks Rs 6500 crore for IT spends: Sources

The Govt's tech advisory group has earmarked Rs 6500 crore for IT spends, a source told. The Finance Minister had set up this group, to be headed by Nandan Nilekani, for effective technological implementation. The group aims to introduce up to 10 IT contracts in financial year 2010-11. The group will take decisions on projects such as the Unique ID project. Recently it was learnt that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had issued the request for quotation (RFQ) for its first IT contract for application development services. Forty-two vendors are said to have submitted their bids for the unique id project. The bids range between Rs 500 crore to Rs 725 crore, the sources had told CNBC-TV18, adding that Wipro and HCL were among the lowest bidders, while Capgemini, Infosys, Polaris and IBM were among the highest bidders. Education IT companies like Aptech and NIIT were also believed to have placed their bids.

Greece decides on 4.8 bln extra measures - govt source

Greece's cabinet on Wednesday decided to take extra austerity measures totaling 4.8 billion euros ($6.49 billion) to ensure it meets key fiscal targets this year, a government source said. "Measures which will yield 4.8 billion euros have been decided," the government official who took part in the cabinet meeting said. "Half will be from spending cuts and another 50 percent from tax increases." The measures include an increase of value-added tax by 2 percentage points to 21 percent and trimming public sector salary bonusses by 30 percent, the source said.

The union budget and its effect on various sectors and stocks are mentioned below

1. Positive Announcement Likely To Benefit Scripts 2.Rs. 25,000 Crore Disinvestment Hind Copper, NMDC 3.RBI Mulling giving banking licences to Pvt.Players & NBFC's Tata Investment,Rel Capital, Ind.Lease Development, IL&FS 4.Extended Interest subvention for export credit for 1 year Rajesh Export,S Kumar,Timex,Emmby Poly 5.Recapitalisation of Banks(RRB) UCO,CBI,Dena,Syndicate 6.Rs. 300 Crore for Agri Inputs Rungta Irrigation 7.42% higher allocation for Infrastructure RIIL,GTL Infra,Sobha,Ultratech Cement 8.Increase Allocation for road projects by 13% IRB infra,RIIL,LT,Ultratech Cement 9.Power Capacity more than double allocation R Power,JP Power,Suzlon,Websol 10.61% more fund allocation for renewable enerdy development Websol,Suzlon,JP Power 11.Clean Energy Fund Websol,Suzlon,JP Power 12.Extended Interest subvention for low cost housing Sobha,LIC,ICICI,Gruh Fin.,Ind.lease 13.Allocates Rs. 19 Bln for Unique ID project Geodesic,Bartronics 14.MAT increased to 18% from 15% All co's paying higher MAT will have negative impact 15.Surcharge Tax reduced to 7.5% from 10% All co's paying higher ST will have positive impact 16.Rs.16,500 Crore allocation to PSU banks PSU Banks 17.Rs.400 Crore for Green Eastern States Rungta Irrigation 18.To Set up more 5 mega food park Godrej Consumer,Godrej Ind. 19.To provide Facility for storage like cold storage,Cold room BOC 20.To provide finance of Rs. 25000 Crore in next 3 years for infrastructure Infrasturcture companies like RIIL,GTL Infra 21.Competitive bidding process for allocation coal blocks RNRL,Sesagoa,Guj NRE,Electrosteel Casting 22.Solar,Small hydro & micro power projects of Rs. 500 Crore JP Power,Websol 23.Rs.200 Crore Grant for Knitwear industry TT,Emmby Poly 24.16% more allocation & state alllocation of Rs.3675 crores for education Educomp,Everon,Hathway Cable 25.Almost Rs.3000 crore more alllocation for health Indraprashth Medi,Fortis 26.Rs.66,100 crore provided for Rural Development Godrej Ind.,Rungta Irrigation,RCF,NFL 27.Cash Allocation for Fertilizer companies RCF,NFL 28.Rs.48,000 Crore allocated for rural dev.under Bharat Nirman Sobha,Godrej Ind.,RIIL,GTL Infra 29.Rs.1270 Crore allocated to Rajiv Awas Yojana Sobha 30.National Skill Development Educomp,Everon,Hathway Cable 31.Increase Allocation for Defense BEL,BEML,Ashok Leyland 32.To Encourage R&D of Science & Lab, weighted deduction increased Anu Lab,Sandu Pharma,Wanbury,Jupitor Bio,Glenmark 33.To Encourage R&D of Statistical Research weighted deduction increased Crisil 34.Full Exemption from customs duty to refrigeration units BOC,Whirlpool,Godrej 35.Full Exemption from customs duty to Trailers & Semi Trailers VST Tillers, M&M 36.Exempt the testing & certification of Agri seed from ST Kaveri Seed,Advanta 37.Cereals & pulses transportation to be exempt from service tax Nutraplus Products 38.Solar photovolatic & solar thermal power gen units exempted Websol,Moser baer 39.Blades for wind energy generators from CED Suzlon 40.CED reduced to 4% for LED light MIC Electronics 41Exemption for mobile phone accessories,parts of batter chargers Spice,Videocon 42.Exemption for medical equipments Span Diagno 43.Toy Ballons fully exempted from CED OK play,Hanung Toys 44.Reduction in CED on household type water filter Ion Exchange,Hind Liver 45.Reduction in CED on corrugated boxes & cartons Ras propack,Essel Packaging,Karur KCP 46.Partial rollback of excise duty relief on large cars Negative Impact onM&M,Maruti,Telco 47.No import duty on some equipment in road projects Guj Appollo Equipments 48.Petroleum products: basic excise duty of 5% crude, 7.5% on diesel & petrol; 10% on other products RIL,IOC,BPCL,HPCL will impact negatively 49.Real estate sector now gets 5 years for completion instead of 4 years before Sobha 50.Microwave oven's part exempted Whirlpool,Godrej 51.Infrastructure Boost Sobha,RIIL,Ultratech Cement 52.Surcharge Reduction FMCG like Godrej Ind,Godrej Consumer 53.Hotel Industries Hotel Leela

GM India's Feb sales highest-ever in a month

Carmaker General Motors India saw its February sales climb over two-fold to 11,111, the highest monthly sales since its inception in the country. The company had sold 4,921 units in the same month last year, General Motors India said in a statement. "This is the first time that the company has crossed 10,000 units sales in a month since the inception of the company in India in 1996," the subsidiary of the US-based firm said in a statement today. GM India attributed its robust growth to good demand for its two small cars -- Beat and Spark. The company sold 3,412 units of the hatchback Spark, 726 units of the sedan Cruze and 4,431 units of the latest compact car Beat in the reporting month, it added. It also sold 411 units of premium hatchback Aveo U-Va, 420 units of the entry-level sedan Aveo, 98 units of the mid- sized sedan Optra, 1,592 units of the multi-utility vehicle Tavera and 21 units of the SUV Captiva. "We are pleased to see such robust growth for all our car lines and we believe these world class products will further propel the Chevrolet brand in the market," GM India Vice President P Balendran said. The company is now in the process of ramping up its production by adding a third shift at its Halol plant and av second shift at Talegaon plant to meet the increased demand, the statement said.

January exports up 11.5% at $14.3 bn

ndia's exports rose an annual 11.5 percent in January to $14.3 billion, the third consecutive rise after 13 straight months of decline, the government said on Tuesday. Imports rose 35.5 percent from a year earlier to $24.7 billion. The trade deficit stood at $10.4 billion in January compared with $5.4 billion a year earlie. Exports for April-January, the first 10 months of the 2009/10 fiscal year, were down 17.8 percent at $131.9 billion from the same period in the previous year.