India raises import taxes on
vegetable oils
I
ndia has raised import taxes on
crude and refined vegetable oils
by
5
percentage
points,
government and trade sources
said, as the world’s largest buyer
seeks to curb surging supplies
from Malaysia and Indonesia.
Duty on crude edible oil has been
increased from 7.5 per cent to
12.5 per cent and on refined
edible oil from 15 per cent to 20
per cent.
Imports of vegetable oils, which
include both edible and non-edible
oils, rose by 23 per cent to 11.72
million tonnes during NovemberAugust
period
as
against 9.52 million
tonnes in the same
period last year.
The cost of the edible
oils
imports
are
expected to rise about
40 percent this fiscal
year, driving several
Indian mills out of
business and forcing
some farmers to switch
to crops other than
oilseeds
such
as
soybeans.
Indian PM favours junking of
5/20 rule for Indian airlines
V
istara and AirAsia India may soon be able to fly
international, as Indian Prime Minister has favoured
scrapping of the 5/20 eligibility rule that bars Indian
carriers from flying overseas until they complete five
years of domestic service and have a fleet of 20 aircraft.
Removal of the regulation is set to widen the divide
between the newand old carriers. Jet Airways, the nation’s oldest private airline, as well as IndiGo and SpiceJet, which had to meet the conditions under the 5/20
rule before they were allowed to fly overseas, are
against its abolition. According to them, scrapping of
the rule would give new entrants an unfair advantage.
Tata Steel to sell shares of
Tata Motors
Hero Cycles buys Firefox
T
H
ata Steel Limited, as part
of its portfolio restructuring, sold 385.21 lakh shares
(1.33 per cent stake) of Tata
Motors Ltd. to institutional investors for Rs.1,250.69
crores. The sale of shares with
a face value of Rs.2 each at
Rs.324.67 per share was executed over the stock ex-
change following a price discovery through book building
process.
With this, Tata Steel’s
stake in Tata Motors has
come down from 5.54 per
cent to 4.21 per cent.
The company has also decided to sell Tata Motors’
shares worth Rs.1,250 crores
to Tata Sons Ltd., the holding
company of the Tata Group.
This transaction will be at
market price through an
off-market transaction, Tata
Steel said.
Tata Steel did not reveal
where it will deploy the funds
mobilised from the s