FREE SECTORS ALERT: 31.08.2012

[rupeedesk]

* AUTOMOBILE: The Supreme Court has directed Fiat India to pay 4 bln rupees as excise duty.

* AVIATION: The Supreme Court has refused to stay the hike in royalty paid by airlines to the Airports Authority of India on ground-handling charges. The civil aviation ministry has decided to scrap the payment of performance-linked incentives to employees of Air India .

* DIVESTMENT: The department of disinvestment is likely to finalise the structure of 'disinvestment exchange-traded fund'. This fund will help the government lower its stake in companies such as OIL AND NATURAL GAS CORP, COAL INDIA and some others.

* ENERGY: The government has signed production-sharing contracts for four oil and gas exploration blocks out of the five awarded under NELP-IX. Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has ruled out across-the-board cancellation of coal blocks allocated to private companies.

* FERTILISERS: Urea imports for arrival in August and September have been finalised at $406-410 a tn, lower than the $534.37 a tn at which urea was imported in Apr-Jul.

* MEDIA: MTV India is looking to sell some of its formats to international networks and production houses for an alternate revenue stream.

* MUTUAL FUNDS: The finance ministry may allow investors of mutual funds to invest in the Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme for availing tax benefits.

* RETAIL: The government has decided not to bring any changes in the ownership clause in its single-brand retail policy.

* SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE: The finance ministry proposes to make it mandatory for companies located in SEZs to export at least 50% of their goods and services.

* TELECOM: The Confederation of Indian Industry has sought an exit policy for unified licence holders under the National Telecom Policy 2012.

By RUPEE DESK

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