Competition bill to keep JVs out of its purview
New Delhi: In line with the recommendations made by large industrial houses, the Competition bill is likely to be diluted further taking out joint ventures out of the purview of the proposed Competition Commission of India (CCI).

A Cabinet note circulated amongst the central ministries had already made pre-notifications of mergers and acquisitions to CCI non-mandatory. Accordingly, companies forming a joint venture will now neither be required to notify CCI before such a move nor after the joint venture is signed.

Indian corporates or multinationals can now form new joint venture without prior CCI approval. The CCI however has been empowered to scrutinise a joint venture suo motu or on complaint, if it perceives the JV as a threat to competition. The commission has to act upon the issue within a year of the signing of joint venture.

The reworked bill is likely to be soon introduced in Parliament.
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Government to sign contracts for 9 oil, gas fields
New Delhi: The government has decided to sign production sharing contracts (PSCs) for nine out of 12 discovered oil and gas fields, awarded under the second round of bids for the development of discovered fields. The bids for these fields had closed in March 1994. The nine PSCs will be signed on February 23 and balance three PSCs will be signed after the controversies surrounding them have been resolved.

Among the fields for which the PSCs will be signed on February 23 are the five fields warded to Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Oil Exploration Corporation, and Heritage Oil. These fields are North Balol, Allora, Zunawa, North Kathaua and Dholasan. Contracts will also be signed for the two fields awarded to Selan Exploration — Karisan and Ognaj. The other two fields are Sangarnpur awarded to Hydrocarbon Resources and Modhera to Interlink Petroleum.

The signing of the PSCs for these 12 fields had been held up because of some public interest litigation over the award of Panna and Mukta oilfields in Bombay offshore to Reliance-Enron consortium.
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Centurion Bank to enter factoring services
Hyderabad: Centurion Bank is embarking upon massive expansion plan setting up as many as 15 branches and is planning a foray into factoring services.

The bank proposes to enter the factoring business by purchasing and selling debt receivables and claims including invoice discounting, rendering bill collection, debt collection, and other factoring services.

The bank is coming out with a rights issue to the tune of Rs 128.08 crore fore the purpose.
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