Briefly Business

HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh on Friday pitched for lowering Statutory Liquidity Ratio by up to 4 per cent.

Parekh for 4 cut in SLR,Montek disagrees

New Delhi: HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh on Friday pitched for lowering Statutory Liquidity Ratio SLR by up to 4 per cent to fund infrastructure projects which will need about 1trillion in the next five year plan 2012-17. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia,however,disagreed with Parekh saying the better way would be to reduce fiscal deficit,as lowering of SLR will not dissuade banks from parking surplus in government securities.

Ensure payer gets only one PAN: CAG to I-T

New Delhi: Finding a huge mismatch between number of Permanent Account Number PAN holders and number of tax return filings,government auditor CAG has asked the Income Tax Department to ensure that a single tax payer is not issued multiple cards. The CAG report for 2010-11 on Direct Taxes,tabled in Parliament on Friday,revealed that 958 lakh PANs were issued up to March 2010 but IT returns filed in the last fiscal were only 340.9 lakh.

Tata Steel raises R1,500 crore

Mumbai: Tata Steel has raised R1,500 crore in the nation s first sale of rupee perpetual bonds by a non-finance company. While the bonds do not have a maturity or redemption date,the steel major has a call option after ten years. The coupon rate on the bonds,which have been bought by insurers,banks and mutual funds,is 11.8,payable semi-annually,with a step up,after ten years,of 300 basis points,if the bonds are not called back.

RCom adds 3.3 mn subscribers in Feb

New Delhi: Anil Ambani group company Reliance Communications RCom today said it has added 3.3 million wireless subscribers in February this year,taking its total customer base to over 132.2 million. The company added 3.3 million wireless subscribers on its GSM and CDMA platforms in the month of February 2011,RCom said.

PTC India Fin Services IPO fully subscribed

Mumbai: The initial public offer of PTC India Financial Services got fully subscribed at 1400 hours on the final day of the issue today. The companys initial public offer IPO,which got subscribed 1.18 times,received bids for 15.75 crore shares against a total of 13.32 crore shares on offer,as per data available on the NSE till 1400 hrs on Friday.

SAIL,Essar Steel deny cartelisation charges

New Delhi: Leading steel producers today denied the charges of cartelisation and unfair trade practices,levelled against them by ancillary steel producers for increasing the prices of Hot Rolled Coils recently. Instead,they have reasoned that the hikes were partially necessitated due to steep hike in input costs. The Federation of Industries of India,a body of the ancillary steel producers had yesterday alleged that bigger players in the sector were cartelising and indulging in unfair trade practices.