Comments
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved penal interest waiver and balance sheet restructuring of over ₹1,329 crore for three Government undertakings.
This will benefit Paradip Port Trust (PPT), Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) and Scooters India Ltd. Of these, PPT will be the biggest beneficiary with waiver of penal interest amounting to ₹1076.59 crore.
However, it will have to pay penalty at the rate of 0.25 per cent of penal interest as on the date of approval of waiver of penal interest.
At the same time, it will start the re-payment of outstanding principal of ₹387.74 crore and outstanding interest as on date of approval of the waiver and the re-payment to be completed in two instalments in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
VPT will gain by waiver of penal interest amounting to ₹250.89 crore. However, just like PPT, it will be required to pay penalty at the rate if 0.25 per cent of penal interest as on date of approval of waiver. The port trust has to pay the outstanding principal of ₹44.69 crore and outstanding interest as on the date of approval of waiver, in one single instalment in 2018-19. In another decision, the CCEA approved restructuring of balance sheet of Lucknow-based Scooters India Ltd. This will result in reduction of equity of ₹85.21 crore against accumulated losses.
The reduction would be deemed to have taken effect as on March 31, 2013. The package also includes freezing the interest on the non-plan loan of ₹1.89 crore with conversion into equity of the outstanding principal amount of ₹1.89 crore.
With this approval, the balance-sheets of Scooters India Ltd will be regularised from 2012-13 onwards and further restructuring will be effected accordingly. This is also expected to clear a hurdle in the process of disinvestment of the company. The Government plans to sell its entire stake in this company.
Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet gave its nod for signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between India and Turkey on trade in poppy seeds. This will ensure quick and transparent processing for import of poppy seeds from Turkey.
Poppy seed trade
The MoU provides that Turkish Grain Board (TMO) will maintain an online system to enable regulation of export of poppy seeds from Turkey to India. Each year, the quantity of poppy seeds to be imported by India will be decided by the Indian Government in consultation with the Government of Turkey taking into account the production of poppy seeds in a crop year, balance from previous crop years and domestic or other export requirement of Turkey. All these will help in regularising the trade.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.