Nano arrives in Nepal

The Tata Nano was launched in Nepal today, but various taxes have pushed up the price of the car to Nepalese Rs 8 lakh, over three times its price in India.

After an addition of 240 per cent customs and other duties and insurance charges, the car that is priced at Rs 1,51,000 in India, will come at a cost of Nepalese Rs 7,98,000 (roughly Rs 5 lakh), Tata Motors’ international business head Johny Oommen said.

The Tatas have introduced three versions of the Nano in Nepal —the standard version, the CX and the LX.

Oommen said the car with its comfort, performance and maneuverability would prove to be ideal for Nepal.

The sole distributor of Tata Nano in Nepal — Sipradi Trading — is looking forward to make it the vehicle of choice among the Nepalese, its CEO Siddhartha Rana said.

Ten commercial banks have tied up with Sipradi to provide financing.

The company has started taking bookings of Rs 10,000 deposit per vehicle in Kathmandu and other major cities.

Bookings are scheduled to close after 10 days.

Nepal is the second foreign country after Sri Lanka, where the Tata Nano has been introduced.

Sipradi is the second largest private business organisation in Nepal with over Rs 1,000 crore annual turnover.

Scan on EPFO fund managers

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is looking into the performance of fund managers appointed by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to manage its huge corpus of Rs 3.5 lakh crore as part of a five-year “performance audit” of the retirement fund body.

The performance audit report for 2005-10 is likely to be finalised by June-end and will be sent to the labour ministry for comments before being tabled in Parliament, sources said.

“The report is likely to be tabled in the monsoon session,” a source said. The CAG will look into the overall financial management of the EPFO as well as the adequacy of internal controls and the use of IT.

The audit will also look into the basis of declaration of interest rates by the EPFO and whether the subscriber accounts are being updated on a regular basis and claims are settled on time.

The EPFO had appointed four fund managers — ICICI, HSBC, Reliance Capital and the State Bank of India — for the first time in July 2008, to provide a better rate of return on deposits to its 4.72-crore subscribers. Prior to that, the SBI was the sole fund manager since its inception in 1952. Sources said the CAG audit would look into the method adopted for the selection of the fund managers and whether proper checks and balances were conducted prior to the appointment.

Last year, the central board of trustees — the EPFO’s apex decision-making body — had announced that the PF fund managers would pay an interest rate of 9.5 per cent for 2010-11, citing a surplus of Rs 1,731.57 crore. The EPFO had been giving 8.5 per cent interest to PF subscribers since 2005-06.

However, the CAG had cautioned that the accumulation in the interest suspense account of the fund manager was because of “non-updation” of accounts of 4.72-crore members as on March 2010. There are about 10 crore accounts with the EPFO. At present, the EPFO follows a cash basis of accounting for calculating investments, while it calculates the interest liability on the basis of accruals.

Courtesy- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110627/jsp/business/story_14164762.jsp

West Bengal earns HPL 350 cr-a-year bonus

The west Bengal government has scored a brownie point by getting the Centre to scrap the import duty on naphtha, a move that will help Haldia Petrochemicals and one that the previous Left Front government had been demanding for a long time. Bengal industries minister Mr. Partha Chatterjee had written to the Centre earlier this month seeking removal of the duty, which is expected to save Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) Rs 350 crore annually. HPL, Bengal’s largest industrial venture, will be the biggest gainer from the Centre’s decision to eliminate the five per cent import duty on crude oil and petro products including naphtha, the main ingredient for making polymer used in the plastics industry. This financial year, HPL is expected to gain only around Rs 250 crore from the move since the first three months have gone. But even this may not help the company break even this year if the trend of the first quarter continues. HPL’s losses in the first three months may come to Rs 150-200 crore because of the slowdown in China. The price of naphtha, the main raw material for the company, has risen by 39 per cent in the past 12 months whereas the net realisation from its products, polymer and chemicals, has gone up by only 18 per cent. The last two months have been especially bad, with HPL selling at prices lower than the cost price. However, HPL managing director Mr. Partha S. Bhattacharyya said he was yet to hear about the duty cut but added that it would bring some relief to the company. “We hope the state government also withdraws sales tax on motor spirit. Then the company will be on its feet and plan for bigger things,” he said. “The slowdown in China is playing havoc. Plastic manufacturers are not buying, hoping a further price cut will force polymer producers to sell at lower prices. Everyone is suffering but HPL is suffering more because it could not make a handsome profit when the market was good before, because of various reasons.” The duty cut impacts HPL the most as it is the only manufacturer that imports naphtha. Other players such as Reliance, GAIL (India) Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation are fully integrated and manufacture naphtha internally. As per, Oil minister Mr. Jaipal Reddy  the duty cuts would entail a loss of about Rs 26,000 crore to the government for the full year. But the empowered group of ministers that recommended the cuts found that most of the revenue loss would come from crude imports and only a negligible proportion from naphtha, sources said. The GoM, headed by finance minister Mr.Pranab Mukherjee, decided that removing the duty would boost naphtha imports and the revenue loss could be offset by the excise duty from higher production.

Wrong account number---------- Bank sends back Dhoni’s cheque

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni''s cheque of Rs 645 to pay house tax was returned by a nationalised bank due to wrong account number.

The cheque was in favour of Ranchi Municipal Corporation and the payment to be made towards holding tax for Dhoni''s house at Harmu under Doranda circle.

"It was not bounced. The cheque dated March 15 was returned (by the bank) due to wrong account number. It''s a human error," as per Ranchi Municipal Corporation''s Chief Executive Officer Vinay Chowbey .

Sensex surges over 500 pts on Greece

The BSE Sensex logged its first weekly gain in three weeks, rising 2.9 percent on Friday, with support from global markets that displayed some relief after Greece reached an agreement for an austerity plan to avoid a debt default.

Financials led the rise with State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank rising between 2.1 and 5.7 percent. The Bank Index gained 3.1 percent on the day.

Greece won the consent of international lenders on Thursday for a five-year austerity plan intended to avoid looming bankruptcy and its prime minister pledged to push radical economic reforms through parliament.

The benchmark 30-share BSE index ended the day 513.19 points higher at 18,240.68, with all but two of its components closing in the positive zone.

To the market is responding to overseas cues and positive developments on commodity inflation which is easing. There is definitely an expectation of moderation in oil prices.

Brent crude rebounded by more than $1 from a four-month low on Friday to $107, but oil prices are more than 20 percent off their early May peaks.

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs slashed forecasts for crude prices in the third quarter after the International Energy Agency announced the release of 60 million barrels of oil next month to shore up the economic recovery.

Investors, however, remained wary as India is expected to make a decision on raising state-controlled prices of fuel such as diesel and cooking gas at 1330 GMT, which could push up an already sticky inflation, which in May hovered over 9 percent.

The central bank raised interest rates last week for the 10th time in just over a year to combat stubbornly high inflation and signaled more increases to come even as growth in Asia's third-largest economy is slowing down.

Foreign funds have been dumping Indian stocks recently, on worries over rising inflation and a slowdown in economic growth in the world's second-fastest growing major economy after China.

They have sold a net $628 million of shares in a total of eight sessions to June 21.

State-run oil marketing companies Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, which would benefit from any increase in fuel prices, were up between 2.46 percent and 6.14 percent.

The 50-share NSE index closed up 2.84 percent at 5,471.25 points.

The index is down 11 percent year-to-date, and is the worst performer among major Asian markets. By comparison, MSCI's measure of Asian shares other than Japan is down 1.8 percent so far in 2011.

The Sensex is headed for its second annual decline in a decade as persistently high inflation, rising interest rates and slowing growth keep investors at bay, a Reuters poll showed.

As per my knowledge goes Market may maximum touch 5550 then it will come down to 4900. I will wait for that opportunity.

Happy trading.