Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Business News

  • Phone banking: new security rule delayed
  • Tata Steel, Nippon to sign JV this month
  • No duty on power equipment import

Phone banking: new security rule delayed
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given banks one more month to put in place an extra layer of security--a onetime user password--for credit card transactions over the phone.
Banks will now be required to comply with the new guidelines by 1 February, after which customers will need an additional password for telephonic credit card payments.
Under RBI guidelines, banks were to decline any telephonic banking transactions if customers do not have the onetime password for such services with effect from 1 January. However, some banks expressed an inability to comply with this directive within the stipulated time and sought more time to put in place systems required for this, a senior official at a leading private sector bank said.

Tata Steel, Nippon to sign JV this month
Tata Steel Ltd plans to sign an agreement with Japan based Nippon Steel Corp. by this month end to set up a `2,400 crore steel plant for producing auto grade steel.
The proposed joint venture (JV) facility is expected to commence operation in two years at Tata Steel's existing unit in Jamshedpur. “The JV with Nippon will be signed by January and we expect to start production from this facility by early 2013”, Tata Steel managing director H.M. Nerurkar said.
The facility's initial capacity will be 600,000 million tonnes per year, Nerurkar said.
Tata Steel Ltd plans to sign an agreement with Japanbased Nippon Steel Corp. by this monthend to set up a `2,400 crore steel plant for producing autograde steel.
The proposed joint venture (JV) facility is expected to commence operation in two years at Tata Steel's existing unit in Jamshedpur. “The JV with Nippon will be signed by January and we expect to start production from this facility by early 2013,“ Tata Steel managing director H.M. Nerurkar said.
The facility's initial capacity will be 600,000 million tonnes per year, Nerurkar said.

No duty on power equipment import
The Union government is not going to impose duty on capital goods import of power equipment for mega power projects during the current Plan period, a senior government official has said.
“The finance ministry has decided not to impose duty on power equipment imports for mega power projects during the current Plan period”, revenue secretary Sunil Mitra said.
Mitra added that a committee of secretaries had been set up to look into the issue of the difficulty in maintaining duty free imports of capital goods for mega power projects as Chinese imports were hurting the domestic industry.