LIC, GIC against dilution of stake in ICICI
Mumbai: ICICI's main shareholders, the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the General Insurance Corporation of India, feel that the financial institution should not dilute the shareholding of the three investment institutions -- LIC, GIC and Unit Trust of India. This view has been put forth in response to ICICI's plans to raise capital in the overseas market.

LIC has a stake of 12.2 per cent in ICICI, GIC 11.2 per cent and UTI 5.7 per cent, enough to block any special resolution. ICICI's equity base expanded to Rs 35 crore on 9 July after certain conversions, and this has marginally reduced the stake of the three institutional investors 27.1 per cent

The ICICI management has decided to raise about Rs 2,000 crore in fresh equity through a $400 million overseas issue -- either GDR or ADR -- and through a preferential allotment of shares to the investment institutions. The heads of LIC and GIC are meeting to discuss the matter.
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Election Commission seeks report on telecom package
New Delhi: The Election Commission has sought a report on the new telecom package from the government. The commission wants to ascertain if any of the model codes of conduct for the elections have been violated in announcing the package, which essentially allows private cellular operators to migrate to a revenue-sharing system from a licence fee-based system.

Earlier, President K.R. Naryanan had expressed reservations on the issue as he felt the waiver of a large part of the licence fee payment, budgeted at Rs 1,700 crore, could be a contravention of the provisions made in the budget, which has been approved by Parliament.

The government has sent a response to the Election Commission, arguing that there is no revenue loss on account of its decision.
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IT department to tap telephone directories
New Delhi: The income tax department is exploring all possible means to increase tax collection. In the process, it is evaluating the viability of making use of telephone directories to detect people who have not filed their tax returns.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has advised all commissioners to match names in telephone directories in major cities with tax assessee data. A software has already been developed for this purpose.

The department will also make use of returns from employers, which contain details of employees' names, PAN and salary details. Any mis-match will be probed into and notices sent to the concerned assessees.

The department has decided to send tax return forms to all those who have been allotted PAN numbers from the year 2000.
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17 companies interested in Bangalore airport
Bangalore: Seventeen companies and consortiums have sent responses evincing interest in the Rs 1,500-crore Bangalore airport project.

The applicants include the Changi Airport Authority of Singapore, the Schipol Airport Authority of Amsterdam, BCC Shipping and Shipbuilding, which as tied up with Casult of Canada, and various organisations that run airports in Dubai, the UK, the US and Malaysia.

The Hindujas, who have tied up with North Star of the US, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries and Lufthansa are also understood to be in the field.
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Indian Bank losses at new high
Chennai: Indian Bank has declared a loss of Rs 788 crore for the year ended 31 March 1999. This is the second highest loss suffered by the bank after the Rs 1,336-crore loss it recorded in 1995-96.

The bank is to announce the financial results for the year 1999-2000 on 30 July.
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RBI waives interest surcharge for petro imports
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has waived the surcharge on interest on bank credit for import of crude oil by private refineries and all imports against the duty entitlement pass book scheme in the Exim policy for 1997-2000.

The main beneficiaries of this will be Reliance Petroleum and Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals, which are the only private sector importers of crude. The savings have been pegged at around Rs 56 crore.
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EDC of Canada to finance rail projects
Calcutta: The Export Development Corporation, Canada, an export financing bank, will fund railway and power projects in India through the Asian Development Bank.

EDC has identified 18 projects of the Indian Railways, including signalling and communications projects, and rolling stock.

The funding, which will be done as part of a co-financing arrangement with ADB, will depend on the quantum of Canadian equipment supplies utilised for the projects, an EDC official said.
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Record loan approvals by World Bank
Washington: The World Bank has said it has approved a record $29 billion in loans in financial year 1999 with Argentina, South Korea, Indonesia and China securing the largest portion. Of this amount, $24 billion has already been disbursed. The previous record was $28.6 billion in 1998.

Argentina was the single largest borrower in 1999, with commitments of $3.23 billion, followed by Indonesia at $2.784, China at $2.1 billion, South Korea at $2.05 billion and Russia at $1.9 billion.

India secured $1.05 billion in loans and stood at eighth position.
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