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Monday, August 23, 2010

Govt extends export sops to struggling sectors

The government continues to extend a helping hand to exporters. Announcing the annual foreign trade policy on Monday, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said that the recovery in exports has been fragile at best and that it would be prudent to persevere with last year's policy stance.

In keeping with this view, the minister has announced the introduction of a bonus scheme for handicrafts and leather.

Govt extends export sops to struggling sectors

“Abrupt withdrawal can be very hurtful for those sectors that are labour intensive, where the demand has not returned and which continue to do badly. That is why we have retained the support or intensive for such sectors bringing in more the embrace of more incentive schemes which need intervention and support. Along with adding to what was being given earlier in the form of a new scheme where 2% additional bonus has been given to some sectors including handicrafts, handloom, many of the engineering projects as well as the textile and the leather industry.

The minister also announced that the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) and Export Promotion for Capital Goods (EPCG) schemes would be extended to March 2012

Indian State-Run Companies Said to Consider Cairn Counter Bid

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Indian state-run energy companies are considering bidding for a stake in Cairn India Ltd., countering Vedanta Resources Plc’s $9.6 billion offer for the explorer, according to two people familiar with the matter.

India’s oil ministry has instructed Oil & Natural Gas Corp. to study the possibility of making a counter offer, one of the people said. GAIL India Ltd. may join ONGC, another person said.

Vedanta, the mining company controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal, agreed this month to buy as much as 60 percent of Cairn Energy Plc’s Indian unit to gain access to the country’s biggest onshore oil field. ONGC owns a 30 percent stake in the field and is seeking to increase production as output from 30-year-old fields declines.

The Press Trust of India earlier reported ONGC, India’s largest explorer, Oil India Ltd. and GAIL have arranged $10 billion in funds from international banks to fund a possible bid.

R.S. Sharma, ONGC’s chairman, and Oil Secretary S. Sundareshan, the senior-most bureaucrat in the ministry, declined to comment. Oil India Chairman N.M. Borah and GAIL’s Chairman B.C. Tripathi didn’t answer calls to their mobile phones. Gordon Simpson, a spokesman for Vedanta, declined to comment, while David Nisbet, the head of group corporate affairs for Cairn Energy, didn’t respond to an e-mail sent to him.