CCI to decide on cashbacks given by online payment platforms like Paytm and Mobikwik
India’s competition watchdog has formed an in-house expert panel to ascertain whether the cashback incentives offered by digital wallets and e-tailers on recharges, bill payments or purchase of other products constitute predatory pricing. Digital wallets and e-commerce companies such as Paytm and Mobikwik often offer cashback incentives to users making payments through them. “A panel has been formed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) that is studying the cashback model being used by online payment platforms, e-commerce companies and also several banks,” a senior CCI official told ET, requesting not to be identified. The official said the move follows several complaints received by the commission on such offers. “This is a new market that we need to understand since we get a lot of complaints related to it,” he said. The panel is likely to complete its study and give its opinion within a couple of months. “It has to be ascertained whether the cashback offers are being offered to create a new market by incentivising customers or to disrupt the competition in the existing market through predatory pricing,” the official said. Predatory pricing is an anti-competitive practice under India’s competition laws. It refers to a situation where a firm charges price below cost of production with the intent of forcing the competition to either immediately exit the market or exit after facing losses for a while. Once the competition exits the market, the predatory firm raises prices. Mobile wallet payments grew rapidly to more than Rs 20,000 crore in 2015-16 from just over Rs 2,000 crore in 2013-14. Several bricks-and-mortar retailers have complained to the CCI many times about the alleged practice of predatory pricing by the online market places. “The concept of cashback prima facie looks like a case of predatory pricing and should be investigated by the commission. Predatory pricing itself is a very complicated process and commissions across the world are looking into it,” said KK Sharma, former head of the CCI’s Merger Control and Anti-Trust Divisions. The All India Online Vendors Association also alleged that the cashback incentives offered by e-commerce companies and payment banks were against the recently released foreign direct investment policy. Allen Robinson Authentic Jersey
Rehab plan for 96 families in Kolhapur progresses
The civic body has drafted a Rs 10-crore project to provide flats to 96 families from Kapoor Vasahat slum under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). The project is the first to be submitted to the central government under the scheme which is also known has ‘Housing for all by 2022’ scheme. The central and state governments and the beneficiary have to share the cost of the housing unit. Prasad Sankpal, programme co-ordinator for the PMAY said, “We have planned to rehabilitate the slumdwellers from the area in six-floor apartments. The central government will contribute Rs 1 lakh and the beneficiary has to share 15% of the total cost of the housing unit. The state government will also make a contribution and the rest will be generated from through public-private partnership basis.” “The project report will be tabled in the general body meeting on May 20. After the general body’s approval, it will be submitted to the Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority, which will submit it to the central government,” Sankpal said. The scheme envisages providing houses to three types of beneficiaries — slumdwellers with property cards of their own, homeless people, and those with their own property but lacking ‘pucca’ houses. The Kolhapur Municipal Corporation has finalised around 550 beneficiaries belonging to the homeless category. The project report for Subhashnagar slums is in the final stage. The civic body had finalised the detailed project report to provide flats to over 100 poor families at Subhashnagar slums under the earlier Rajiv Awas Yojana and had submitted it to the state government. However, the project was not approved. After the new government launched the new scheme, the KMC had to revise the DPR owing to the changes in the funding pattern. Cortez Kennedy Jersey
Norms for road projects will be diluted: Nitin Gadkari
“I have decided to dilute technical and financial bid norms for road projects to increase competition,” said Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping. At an interaction organised by BusinessLine on Friday with top executives from the corporate sector, he said the norms now allow for about 100-125 contractors to participate in the bids but “I hope to increase the number to 500,” he said responding to a question from H Jayaram, Managing Director, GMMCO, which represents construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar in India. The Road Transport Minister plans to expand the national highway network to about 2 lakh km from the present 1.5 lakh km and enhance road safety. At the time he took over, of the 52 lakh km of roads 96,000 km were national highways. “The approach of the earlier government was conservative because of the five lakh accidents and 1.5 lakh deaths every year,” he said. “I decided to increase the national highways to 2 lakh km and today it is 1.5 lakh km and take steps to bring down accidents by half at least,” he said. The 96,000 km of highways, which is just 2 per cent of road length, carried 40 per cent of national traffic. With 2 lakh km, it will go up to 80 per cent, he says confidently. To illustrate the change the Centre has brought into the road sector, the Union Minister recalls the time AM Naik, Chairman, Larsen & Toubro, the largest infrastructure company in India, had thrown up his hands and said L&T has decided to exit road projects “and at that time I could not convince him to change his mind then,” Gadkari said. But “now his company is doing nine projects at an estimated ?15,000 crore and some of them at 20 per cent below cost. This is the difference after the new government took over,” he asserts. Over 90 per cent of the issues relating to 403 stalled projects valued at about ? 3.5 lakh crore have been addressed. Just about a couple of dozen projects are still pending, he said responding to a question from TV Karthikeyan, Chief Financial Officer, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects. Hybrid model The Minister said the Centre will push ahead with the hybrid annuity model for funding road projects. By March next year, it will complete contracts for ?2 lakh crore and in the next year target ?5 lakh crore. This model is a big boost Indian investors and contractors, he said. On enhancing road safety, Gadkari said the new Motor Vehicle Act will soon be finalised with the Yunus Khan Committee set to hold its final meeting. This will benefit insurance companies, he said in response to a query from MS Sreedhar, Managing Director, Royal Sundaram General Insurance. “We are identifying black spots and have provided ?11,000 crore to improve 726 black spots, private sector companies including those in insurance can support this initiative,” he said. Road safety The Ministry has taken a ‘historical decision’ and moved a Cabinet note to provide for 1 per cent of cost of construction for road safety. This is equal to ?5,000 crore as of now. Funds are also being allocated to State governments to improve road safety, he said. “I am confident we will reduce accidents by 50 per cent in next two years,” he said. Reacting to a suggestion from Preetha Reddy, Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, he said there is a plan to establish 1,200 road side amenities, including immediate-care facility and ambulances for accident victims. These ambulances will be equipped with rescue equipment to extricate victims from damaged vehicles. The Ministry is also planning to establish with private sector participation over 50 yards for concrete precast across the country to supply pre-cast components to infrastructure projects. The private sector has a huge opportunity to participate in these, he said. David Mayo Authentic Jersey
AirAsia India hits 2.5 million passenger milestone
AirAsia India has flown 2.5 million passengers as of today, the airline said. “We at AirAsia India are thrilled beyond words on having flown 2.5 million guests as of today,” AirAsia CEO designate Amar Abrol said in a statement here. AirAsia India reached its 1 million passengers milestone in August 2015 and in a little more than six months, the number of passengers flown by it has grown to 2.5 million, it said. To celebrate this occasion, AirAsia India is offering 50 per cent off on return fares for 50 hours across the AirAsia Group network. The 50 per cent off is also valid on international destinations such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Bali, Phuket, Singapore, Melbourne, Auckland and many more connected by the Group airlines, AirAsia Berhad (Flight code AK), AirAsia X (Flight code D7) and Thai AirAsia (Flight code FD). Seats are available for booking from today till May 18 for the travel period from August 1 to November 30, it said. AirAsia India started its operations on June 12 2014 with an Airbus A320. The airliner currently has a fleet of six aircraft with 10 destinations and 12 routes in India spanning Bengaluru, New Delhi, Goa, Pune, Kochi, Vizag, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Guwahati and Imphal. Ray Lewis Womens Jersey
Saudi Aramco awards Hasbah gas expansion contract
Saudi Aramco has awarded a $1 billion-plus contract to India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Singapore-based Emas AMC for the expansion of the offshore Hasbah sour gas field, industry sources said. Increasing its supply of gas is a top priority for Saudi Arabia. Many industrial firms have complained about a shortage crimping expansion plans, while the kingdom is trying to use more of the fuel for power generation and water desalination instead of burning crude oil, which it wants to export. Work on the expansion scheme includes building platforms and pipelines, with the field’s supply feeding the Fadhili gas plant, a $6 billion complex that will include a gas processing unit and sulphur recovery. Saudi Aramco declined to comment. L&T did not respond to emailed requests for comment, while Emas was not available for immediate comment. It is the second major contract win for the duo in recent months: Emas AMC, a unit of Ezra Holdings, also teamed up last year with the Indian firm to secure a long-term contract with Aramco to work on offshore facilities. The expansion of Hasbah will supply 2 billion standard cubic feet per day (scfd) of gas to the Fadhili plant, for which Aramco awarded a construction contract last year. The remaining 500 million scfd of supply for the plant will come from the onshore Khursaniyah field. Hasbah already feeds Wasit, another major gas plant. Aramco said in March it had started producing natural gas from the offshore field ahead of peak summer demand in the world’s largest oil exporting country. An industry source told Reuters the Wasit plant would reach full capacity in July of processing 2.5 billion scfd of gas. Filip Forsberg Jersey
Nitin Prasad to head Shell India
oyal Dutch Shell Plc announced that Nitin Prasad will take over from Yasmine Hilton as the Chairman of Shell Companies in India from October 1, 2016. Hilton, who is also VP IT Project Excellence, Royal Dutch Shell will end her assignment on September 30, 2016 and draw the curtains on a career spanning 37 years with the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major. Prasad is currently Cluster General Manager for Lubricant Sales and Market for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. “An electrical engineer from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA and a management graduate from INSEAD, Prasad took up his current appointment in 2011 as General Manager, Shell Lubricants in the third largest lubricants market in the world,” the company said in a statement. “He has been instrumental in turning around Lubricants business in India. His previous roles in Shell include Chemicals where he was General Manager APME Supply Chain and Senior Advisor on Downstream Strategy,” the statement added. Vernon Hargreaves III Authentic Jersey
IOC Reluctant to Supply LPG To Nepal From Paradip
Shortage of liquefied petroleum (LP) gas is unlikely to end soon as the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) – the sole supplier of petroleum products — has showed reluctance to make additional supply from its Orissa-based Paradip refinery. Interestingly, IOC itself had proposed to NOC to make additional supply from Paradip refinery for the time being. It had proposed to export some 10,000 tons a month from the refinery for at least three months. But IOC seems to be unwilling to make supply LP gas to Nepal from Paradip refinery, according to NOC officials. “We recently wrote to IOC to finalize rates and sort other technicalities for importing LP gas from the new refinery. But IOC is yet to respond to our letter,” a high-ranking NOC official told Republica, preferring anonymity. NOC was preparing to import 10,000 tons of LP gas from the Orissa-based refinery for some months. This additional import was expected to end prolonged shortage of cooking fuel. “It seems that IOC wants us to import cooking fuel from the new refinery on permanent basis,” the official added. NOC currently imports LP gas from Barauni, Haldia and Mathura refineries of IOC. As these refineries failed to supply cooking gas as per demand, both IOC and NOC had turned their attention to Paradip refinery. The state-owned petroleum monopolist has IOC to make monthly supply of 38,000 tons for some months. However, IOC has managed to supply only around 28,000 tons from Barauni, Haldia and Mathura refineries. IOC is unlikely to increased supply of LP gas to Nepal in May as well. Speaking at a program a week ago, NOC Managing Director Gopal khadka had said that preparation was at the final stage to import 8,000 to 10,000 tons of cooking gas per month from Paradip refinery. Some NOC sources say that IOC, under pressure from the Indian government, has showed reluctance to supply LP gas from Paradip refinery on a temporary basis. They say that the Indian government wants to increase commercial activities in Orissa by supplying fuel to Nepal from the refinery on permanent basis. Interestingly, India’s Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, is also from Orissa. Meanwhile, LP gas bottlers say that the current supply cannot import supply of cooking fuel. “The demand has increased manifolds as consumers now own multiple cylinders,” Shiva Ghimire, president of Nepal LP gas Industry Association, said, adding: “There is no other alternative to increasing supply to address shortage.” According to NOC, IOC is supplying around 50 bullets a day to Nepal against the daily demand for 60 bullets. Adam Lowry Jersey
IndianOil to reach 10 million ton refining capacity this fiscal
Oil refiner cum retailer Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) aims to reach a refining capacity of 9-10 million ton (mt) in this fiscal at its 15 mt crude oil refinery at Paradeep. “We were aiming to achieve 100% capacity capacity utilisation at our Paradeep refinery this fiscal. But the refinery will take time to stabilise and reach its full rated capacity. In this fiscal, we aim to achieve a refining capacity of 9-10 mt,” said Sanjiv Singh, director (refineries), IOCL. IOCL has invested Rs 350 billion on the Paradeep refinery. The unit has commenced operations in February this year. The Paradeep refinery is capable of processing 100% high sulphur, including 40% heavy crude oil of low cost. The refinery would churn out a wide gamut of petroleum products like petrol, diesel, kerosene, aviation turbine fuel, propylene, sulphur and petroleum coke. The refinery has unique INDMAX (Indane Maximization) technology with 4.17 million ton capacity capable of delivering up to 44% LPG. The Paradeep refinery product mix would consist of 37.5% high speed diesel, 25.3% motor spirits, 13.1% ATF, 5.2% propylene+LPG, 8.1% petroleum coke and 1.8% sulphur. The products would be predominantly consumed in the domestic market except few quantities of motor spirits which would be exported. IOCL is also investing Rs 340 billion on the petrochemical complex, roughly the same amount it spent on the refinery. Though IOCL had conceptualised the oil refinery and petrochemical complex at the same time, the petrochemical complex was kept in abeyance due to recession. The entire petrochemical complex is slated to be commissioned by 2021. The first unit of this complex- the polypropylene unit is scheduled to be completed by December this year. The unit estimated to cost Rs 31.50 billion got the investment approval of IOCL board in March 2014. The polypropylene unit would make use of Spheripol Technology from Basell, Italy. The unit will be capable of producing different grades of polypropylene but will commence with production of only homo grade initially. The major facilities envisaged under the project are coker LPG treater unit, ware house for polypropylene storage and other associated facilities like flare and cooling tower. Polymer units feel the polypropylene complex would be a huge boost to the local units that are currently dependent on raw material imports from Haldia and Surat. Davon Godchaux Womens Jersey
India’s mobility revolution is driving global oil demand – Kemp
“India is taking over from China as the main growth market for oil,” the International Energy Agency observed in its latest petroleum market update (“Oil Market Report”, IEA, May 2016). India’s oil consumption has grown at an average annual rate of 5 percent over the last decade and climbed over 4 million barrels per day for the first time in the year ending in March 2016. India is currently the world’s fourth-largest oil consumer after the United States, China and Japan, and set to overtake Japan for the third slot within the next 12-18 months (tmsnrt.rs/1Tgtums). Diesel remains the largest end market, accounting for more than 40 percent of all petroleum consumed in the country, according to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Liquid petroleum gas for cooking and petroleum coke for power generation are other major markets, each accounting for about 10 percent of final demand. Gasoline, by contrast, accounts for only 12 percent of total consumption, but is the fastest-growing segment, with demand rising by 10 percent a year for the last decade (tmsnrt.rs/1TgtHpu). Gasoline demand has been accelerating, with consumption up 11 percent in 2014/15 and more than 14 percent in 2015/16 (tmsnrt.rs/1Tgtwur). Growing gasoline demand is directly linked to the explosion in vehicle ownership among the country’s rapidly expanding middle and lower-middle class (tmsnrt.rs/1NvrhGA). The number of registered vehicles on India’s roads has been doubling every seven years and hit 182 million in 2013, according to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (“Road Transport Yearbook”, 2012/13). The majority of registered vehicles were motorcycles (133 million) with a much smaller number of cars, jeeps and taxis (25 million) and goods vehicles (9 million). The balance between two-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles has remained fairly constant since the turn of the millennium. India still has a relatively low vehicle penetration rate compared with other developing countries let alone richer economies. There were just 149 vehicles for every 1,000 people in 2013 compared with 273 in Brazil, 277 in Mexico, 593 in Japan and 781 in the United States. With so many registered two-wheel vehicles, the penetration of passenger cars is exceptionally low by international standards. India has just 17 passenger cars per 1,000 people compared with 215 in Brazil, 450 in Britain and 540 in Germany. There is enormous potential for a further increase in both vehicle ownership and gasoline consumption as more and more households are able to afford to drive. The largest number of vehicles are registered in the major urban centers of Delhi, Bengalaru, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai, and the large states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, all of which have a large number of relatively wealthy households. But the fastest growth rates in vehicle ownership over the last 10 years has been in relatively poor and peripheral states such as Tripura, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, which suggests vehicle ownership is rapidly spreading to a much wider cross-section of the population. Provided India’s economy continues to grow, and fuel prices remain moderate, India’s thirst for gasoline will be the most important source of oil demand growth over the next few years. The country is set to join the United States and China in a new group of Big 3 oil consuming countries. Calais Campbell Jersey